The story of Garden Santa Fe starts with a parking lot. While not usually how a sustainable project initiates, the immense underground parking structure bottoms out at 33 meters beneath the street, placing the ubiquitous automobile where it belongs, well below human and natural habitation. Set above is a typical mall, only its three stories are also subterranean. Lastly, there is the park. It is modest in scope for an urban center but as the surrounding area has been swallowed whole by development, the vegetated refuge will become a core social asset.
The architectural device of inserting three full story glass atriums essentially brings the outdoors to the underground floor plates. The circular courtyards, complete with live trees at the bottom and second level of the mall, provides a release from what would otherwise be a claustrophobic environment. Then there is the copious amount of daylight they usher inside. The energy density of the mall is 60% of typical retail spaces in part from the natural lighting, low energy equipment, and the reduced need for air conditioning, with some supplemental solar electricity. An extensive rain collection system and onsite greywater treatment and water reuse process makes a similar impact in water consumption. . KMD Architects’ Roberto Velasco: “The developer actually wanted more, so we decided to go for this very daring architecture. It takes the light into the space with this very large atrium that comes into the heart o...