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Oppenheim Architecture has been making positive impressions and bold statements worldwide with their large-scale office, hotel, and luxury residence projects since the company's founding in 1999. Led by Chad Oppenheim out of Miami, the firm has also gained a reputation for its environmentally conscious designs and emphasis on creating buildings not just as vessels for living, but as incubators of a refined lifestyle. Boasting a portfolio from individual homes to master-planned projects spanning the globe, Oppenheim has experience working at a variety of scales. SkyriseCities recently talked with Chad Oppenheim, who recalled his passion for the environment and how that has been reflected in his work thus far.
Oppenheim first reminisced about his childhood, remembering where his enthusiasm for nature came from. "I got a very early taste of it. I wanted to become an architect since I was seven. My parents built a home and they worked with an architect. At the time there was an energy crisis and my parents were trying to get a windmill on the house, which the neighbours fought, and solar panels, which proved to be too expensive. It was something that left an imprint on me at a very early age. When I was in university, one of my professors was retiring and decided to build an 'earth ship.' This man, Michael Reynolds out of New Mexico, came out with this concept of using recycled, reclaimed materials and building houses into the earth. Some of them are off the grid completely and they live off passive thermal insulation from the ground and solar heating from the greenhouse."
While traveling around the southwest, Oppenheim was inspired by the Ancestral Puebloans. "They built with the environment and with local materials. They didn't import stone from Italy. It was this humble building with the land rather than merely on the land. If we're doing skyscrapers, we're also trying to bring in a lot of outside experiences, terraces, balconies, pools, gardens, etc. All these things kind of come together in one holistic experience."
On how other architects and builders can become engaged in actively implementing green technology in their buildings, Oppenheim noted that governments worldwide are starting to recognize the benefits of sustainable design. "Even for us, we run into a lot of frustrations where we try to do things that just don't pencil out for the developer's numbers or what have you, so it's definitely a frustrating thing. But I think the good news is municipalities are starting to invoke these things as part of their building codes. So it doesn't become optional, it's actually required."
Invoking the firm's worldwide presence and the unique challenges posed by different environments, Oppenheim said: "We have an office in Switzerland and they're probably one of the leaders in this type of building construction. They're very resourceful and very protective of their resources because they're a very small country basically enclosed by mountains. They don't want to be importing all their energy from outside, so they manage the forests and make sure homes are super energy efficient. We have a project where we can literally heat the entire house with a hairdryer. It's pretty amazing what's possible in certain environments. There are challenges in cold weather environments, there are challenges in warm weather environments, and I think the important thing is to really design with a sensitivity toward place. It's about using the knowledge of the people who live there without technology."
Oppenheim continued, recognizing how past building techniques are still relevant today: "I think the sense of place is really important and it goes back to what I learned from the native people, it's about building with the land. This use of technology that supersedes the challenges of nature is important but I think we shouldn't really rely on those things. We should build a sensitivity towards context, towards climate, towards the environment, not just to protect it but to really work with it. I really love native structures, in a way architecture without architects. Like an igloo in Alaska and a tipi in the Midwest, or building into the cliffs, they had to use more ingenuity and thought than just saying 'okay I'm going to put a house here and pump it with air conditioning and heat.' These are the things I find fascinating and we try to learn from."
Learning from these local conditions is so important that Oppenheim does extensive research into the site and its surrounding context before construction. "Wherever we work we do a tremendous historical background check. So in a way we operate like archaeologists as well as architects. We try to uncover this truth of the place and then take that and do it in a modern way, learning from hundreds of years of adaptive manipulations to the environment."
One of Oppenheim's most significant completions came in 2007, when Miami's Biscayne Boulevard welcomed Ten Museum Park. The 50-storey building only contains 200 units, a sign of its high-end status. Unit layouts range in size and complexity, from shallow suites to interlocking lofts and three-storey penthouses. Some are even large enough to host a private soaking pool. Combined with this residential component is 20,000 square feet of Class A office space and a retail program on the building's lower floors. It's left a big impact on the neighbourhood, which Oppenheim spoke to in detail.
"We started doing what we were doing, essentially bringing very thoughtful architecture, pushing the boundaries of architecture, not that it was curvaceous. People didn't want to live in traditional spaces, they wanted to live in more dynamic spaces with incredible light and air. I think the way those things were proposed and marketed was very unique and I think people learned a lot from it. It was a very successful project. We were able to go into neighbourhoods that never had any action or activity until our project. We had record prices that beat all the places in the best neighbourhoods. We were able to dial in a design formula that was easy to build but sexy and desirous for people to create their lives. In a way we weren't really designing buildings, we were crafting this life, a better life. We have a unique ability to figure out a way to usher people to a better lifestyle."
Oppenheim continued to describe the project's lasting legacy in Miami. "Ten Museum Park was a very pivotal project because no one was building in these emerging areas. Miami's always been an incubator for residential housing and resort development so people look towards Miami as a trending place for these types of things. We were basically crafting these lifestyles and doing so in these undesirable locations but giving people really interesting architecture. We were really successful in doing that. Just by happenstance, there was a proposal to do Museum Park which is thankfully now done, but at the time it wasn't approved. In fact, the director of the museum, now the Pérez Art Museum, said 'you helped us get approval and bring attention to the centre of Miami.' So it's kind of interesting to see these things and how they can have cultural impacts."
Located in the Fort Bonifacio Central Business District outside Manila in the Philippines, the three-tower Net Metropolis project is one of Oppenheim's greenest endeavors. The under-construction office complex has been designed with flexibility in mind. By minimizing interior structural columns, tenants have the freedom to arrange the space how they please. The external curtain wall maximizes sunlight penetration while diagonal aluminum shading devices ensure reduced solar heat gain. Wind turbines have been placed on the roof and a greywater reuse system irrigates the development's landscaping.
Oppenheim commented on the sleek appearance of the complex so far, also touching on the importance of the project to the firm and to the Philippines. "[The buildings] look like renderings which is always nice. It's a very important project for the Philippines and also for us because it was our first in Asia. We've had really great success with the project. Not only do people love to look at it, the importance of it being a green project, but it's all well received in the commercial markets. One thing is to do interesting architecture and the other thing is it becoming a successful project for your client. That's really what we focus on: figuring out how to make it a win-win for everyone. We get to do fun things and those things are well received and our clients are able to get their success from it."
Net Metropolis is the World Green Building Council’s (WGBC) pilot project for the Philippines. The WGBC and its coalition of national Green Building Councils promote ecological and socially responsible development in over 100 countries, enforcing the LEED certification system in some of these participating countries. "Essentially we were asked to come and do the first green highrise and try to figure out a way that would create something special for those people," explained Oppenheim. "Our clients wanted to bring us in on the project and we were able to work together as a test case for the future." These international standards have been adapted to local conditions and environments and thus, achieving top marks for sustainability in colder climates like Canada is a vastly different undertaking than meeting the benchmarks accepted in the Philippines.
Whether countries and municipalities adopt these standards or not, Oppenheim remains committed to sharing his passion for altruistic environmental principles. His firm continues to expand its reach beyond Floridian borders, with visionary projects proposed in Australia, United Arab Emirates, and The Bahamas. Oppenheim especially got the creative juices flowing when they proposed an eco-resort carved into the sandstone cliffs of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. It's raw yet modern, and it's the perfect representation of Oppenheim's harmonic relationship with nature. In a world where the poor are often the inequitable victims of powerful storms and natural disasters, and climate change forces nations to rethink the use of land, Oppenheim's architecture reminds us that primitive building methods, and working with the land rather than in spite of it, can still provide security and sustainability in modern times.
"Our work really focuses on nature and the beauty of our surroundings that we take for granted. We believe we should celebrate that beauty and that architecture is there to help one refocus on the earth," said Oppenheim. "We're very interested in those natural elements and we need to preserve them."
Additional Net Metropolis images and information can be found in the Database entry linked at the bottom of this page. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
