Project Details
Project Description
The Brokery straddles the boundary of where work and life collide. The real estate office and co-working space stands next to a small strip retail center in a Central Phoenix neighborhood. It offers the homey comforts of a front porch, living room, kitchen and community table bundled with modern office technology. Open plan spaces for co-working are complemented by three smaller office and conference rooms. An island reception desk provides a necessary information center without isolating staffers from coworkers. Together, private and social function in an easy balance. The building takes its form from surrounding mid-century ranch houses; the design team manipulated its materials, shapes and systems to make the structure resource and energy efficient in a desert environment. As a signatory to the AIA 2030 Commitment, the team pushed toward carbon neutrality and minimal water use by employing durable, high-performance sustainable elements. All materials will withstand Phoenix’s extreme temperature changes and aridness. Through shrewd siting and massing based on their in-house energy models, Studio Ma expanded the Brokery’s window walls to their fullest extent while keeping construction costs at $309 per square foot, an average cost for the area. The building’s thermal comfort is safeguarded by pulling the roof into overhangs, which become porches on the south and east sides. These shelter the Brokery’s entrances. The west and north sides are shaded by nearby trees. Native plantings and a bioswale provide a xeric landscape. Each decision the team made tailors the building to its surrounding landscape. The exterior wood walls relate to neighboring houses. But this sympathy is most visible in the Brokery’s massing, which rises and falls like the nearby mountain ridges.
