Architectural Engineering + Minecraft + Brutalist Commercial Midrise =

Every corner of this building  was designed with intent.   The architecture makes you feel like  you’re exploring an unknown cave.   The structural side was designed to be  as realistic as possible through a   split shear wall and structural column grid. There’s more design aspects than I can count  

That reduce building energy consumption and push it even closer to net zero.   Even the interior is designed  to make you feel adventurous,   whether that be exploring a vast cavern,   creating something new at your workstation, or decompressing on the zen-like top floor.  

This earthy, stone-filled office tower is one  of my favourites. This, is how I made it.   Before we dive into the architecture,  green building design,   structural design, and interior  layouts and furnishings,   please like this video just so YouTube  will boost it within the algorithm.  

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A few weeks ago I was procrastinating,  as any student does, and I was   scrolling through TikTok when I came  across an interesting concept.   It was some concept art using repeating concrete  arches that blended with some greenery.  

I thought the idea was pretty cool, so I  sketched out a playful pattern of arches that   repeat along the ground level  and flip upside-down within the   midsection to make it feel enclosed. Behind these concrete arches and columns,  

The idea is to have a glass facade to let in a lot of natural light. When I was drawing,   it kind of looked like stalagmites and stalactites, you know, like in a cave,   so I thought it would be more interesting to actually not connect them from  

The bottom to the top. Going with this sort-of cave theme, I   had an idea to actually use an atrium inside the entrance to make it feel like a big opening.   Excuse me, I don’t know what an atrium is! Well, Moose TM, this is an atrium. It’s a big,  

Open space inside a building typically with a very tall ceiling that spans multiple floors.   The idea is to bring in a lot of natural light.   So, with the idea to have a very tall first  first floor, I added 6 additional floors on  

Top of the tower section. For the top section,  I decided to extend the glass up through   the concrete. This glass becomes the parapet  that sticks up out over the edge of the roof   and there’s some interesting ideas behind the  design, but I’ll talk about that later.  

At the bottom, the portion on the left is  intended to be an open-air, walkable area with   repeating arches that anyone can explore. It’s similar to the base of this   tower that I found in Vancouver. If you want your area to feel like a streetfront,  

Do something like this, where you have an overhead, and then it doesn’t actually go   up into a building, see, it’s just something like this, and your actual building is set   back. It’s a nice way to create an enclosed urban space without taking up too much room.  

So, this is the site. The City of Andea is  fictionally in the Northern Hemisphere,   which means the sun goes across  the south side of the sky.   Since this building to the east  blocks a lot of the morning sun,  

And the other buildings on the west  block the late afternoon sun,   the south facade with the atrium is going to  get most of the sunlight between mid-morning   and late-afternoon. This means that I want to  keep some space between the tower of this  

Building and the curvy one right beside it.   I don’t want the wall of the building  tight up against the other tower, because   I’m not trying to pull a move  like Ottawa’s Little Italy.   They have that building right there, and then  there’s that one right there, there’s one  

That’s basically identical right  behind it on that side too,   there’s this one that they’re putting in  here, there’s that one already there, and   there’s another one back there under  construction. So, if I lived there, I’d   be pretty upset that my  windows are being blocked.  

If we look back at the site plan,  the entire site is this right here.   The building footprint is this much. In the  context of this design, it’s important for me   to keep the first-floor walls blank on  the north and east sides to allow for  

Development pretty much right up against  it for the corner of this city block.   For the actual design of the walkway, it took  a while, but, I eventually got the right   tile materials to make it feel a little bit  more like you want to actually explore it.  

There’s also a reason for this  diagonal pattern on the south side.   It’s sort-of my own twist on a concept called  “take the corner”. Now, typcically this   “take the corner” is done by cutting into  the corner of a building to make a turn  

Feel more welcoming. This is my version of  that concept by guiding your eyes to the   corner of this building rather than having it  flat and making it feel like you need to walk   straight forward. So after having this all planned out and  

Ready to go, I added the arches over top, which, they’re pretty cool and everything, but,   it still felt empty. So, I added two things. The first is the sun shade. It serves three   purposes. The first is obviously to shade you from the sun. The second is to makes it feel  

More down-to-earth when you walk under it and through the area. The third is,   well, it looks pretty cool. The second item is this staircase that twists   and turns from the ground up heading upwards. It doesn’t really serve any practical purpose,  

But, my idea was to make a space that made you feel like you were exploring   an urban rooftop. There’s lots of stone and concrete with wide, open, flat spaces on top.   At the northern end of the walkway I added  trees and greenery to make the space feel  

More enclosed. Once I build more, the north end will feel a   little bit more enclosed because I’ll have a building on this empty grass. Although,   when I do develop them, I’ll probably keep them quite low, because right now, this building has a  

Really beautiful view of the valley park across the street.   So, to actually get this build going, I  started out by planning a grid system to lay   down the structure. Remember, architecture  students, engineers have feelings too.  

From there, I drew a line to show where the  atrium would be on the south side of the   building. I went with a diagonal design   for the edges for some additional complexity. Spanning from the top of each column,  

I added beams across the entire structure. Set back from the atrium railing, I added   a split shear wall with a staircase and two elevators in each. By having the staircases on   opposite sides, it helps with the occupant safety in the event of a fire.  

You’ll also notice that one of the staircases  leads directly outside, further improving   safety. I believe shear walls should technically  be enclosed completely, and I don’t   actually know if you can call it that since you  can actually see into it from the outside.  

It might be, but, I’d have to ask somebody. So on the   south-facing facade, the idea is to let  in sunlight in the late morning and   early afternoon, but, only when  the building needs it most.   This means: late fall, winter, and early spring. Compared to the summer,  

The sun will be lower in the sky. The easiest way to do this is overhangs,   but since I’m using a glass wall, I decided on a horizontal sunshade.   If I turn on shaders and adjust the angle of  the sun, you can see that the winter lets in  

More sunlight compared to the summer. Also, since I’m using concrete as a main material,   it has a high thermal mass, which means it takes   longer to heat up and longer to let heat go.  So, if we combine this with wood flooring,  

The wood will heat up faster in the  morning and give off the heat sooner,   and the concrete will do the same thing,  but it’s going to be a bit delayed   so it’s going to release heat  in the afternoon and evening.  

Wood is also great for visual comfort  since it’s a natural material.   Another big part of building design is finding  a way to have airflow within your building.   I’m using my imagination to pretend that this  section of glass right here between floors  

Is actually a hatch that opens to allow  ventilation through the building.   Oh, the building is still too hot? Well, I  added operable skylights on top that can open   in any direction. The hot air  will rise and go up and out.  

It will also allow cool air  to come into the space.   If you want even more natural ventilation,  the parapet has a slot that can be open or   closed depending on the direction  and speed of the prevailing wind.  

Now, normally the parapet would block  the wind, but if it’s open, the air   flows over the top and is forced down  into the building by these skylights.   On the rooftop, I added this HVAC equipment  to control the heating, ventilation,  

And air conditioning. To help reduce  the energy required from the   city power grid, I added these solar panels  on top. To gather the most amount of   energy possible, they are oriented towards  the south, where the sun is most of the time.  

On the roof, I have stair and elevator  overruns for elevator maintenance and   rooftop access. Additionally, iron bars  were added along the parapet perimeter   (band name, called it) for window washers to  clip in while they repel down the sides.  

Just a quick plug before we keep moving: I  have a Patreon for $3/month that gives you   access to my not-so-formal building videos.  You won’t see this type of content on my   main channel, I build these really quick  buildings applying everything I know before  

The clock runs out. If that’s something you’re  interested in, check out the link below.   On the ground floor, I really wanted to make  it feel like you’ve entered into a cavern   with mysterious parts of the cave further back.  I re-purposed these sunshades from outside  

To use it as a way to make it feel more enclosed  while also providing light to the space.   A touch of greenery in the atrium with a green  wall hiding near the back makes it feel  

Exciting and pulls you further inwards. The  decor is very minimal and sparsely populated   to give a feeling of solitude, something that  I figure you’d feel if you were alone in a   cave.  

The office floors have washrooms on the east  side, a conference room in the corner,   an office, a break room, and lots of workspaces  designed to fit the needs of many people.   The colours are pretty consistent, wood flooring  that switches grain direction under the  

Workstations, gray furniture, white chairs,  and glass walls. Greenery and planters with   a burnt orange colour are used to give it  a cozy feel. Workstations are designed to   incorporate social pockets, or if you find  chitchat is distracting, there’s a few spots  

On the end. There’s a short divider in the  middle so that you don’t accidentally make   awkward eye contact with your coworker. It’s  simple, clean, and makes work tolerable.   The top floor was designed to be a zen-like  space where you go to relax to get away  

From your work. The skylights give it fresh  air, daylight, and makes the atmosphere   quite nice. Chat with your coworkers or find  your own spot, it’s up to you. There’s   even a section of water with a glass floor to  make the 6th floor feel like an aquarium.  

So, come take a seat with me, and enjoy  everything this building has to offer.   From the atmospheric walk heading up to the  entrance, to the cozy office spaces across   5 floors, THECAVES is guaranteed to be  an experience to anyone who explores.  

If you’d like to visit, join Cubed Community  using the Discord link in the description,   and head to Monstera. Don’t go anywhere yet,  because I have an immersive tour coming up   in a minute, but I’d like to say thank today’s  sponsor for making this video possible:  

AtlasVPN. Right now, AtlasVPN is running a  huge discount where you can get a 3-year   subscription for just $1.99/month with  a 30 day money-back guarantee. Time is   running out, so get your deal by clicking  the link in the video description below.