Civitas at 782 River Park Dr

The architect/owner wanted to design a progressive single-family home that represents the values of his family of three while opening up the design process firm-wide to support learning and experimentation in design, construction and operation. The home occupies a 6,000 square foot corner lot that was a greenfield site in a twenty-five-year-old new urbanism subdivision built on a small peninsula of land in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Sited to frame a magnificent view of the Mississippi River and delta beyond, it relates in comparable scale and simplified massing to its traditional surroundings.

Civitas is certified LEED Platinum for Homes and is now the world’s first dual certified Zero Energy and Zero Carbon dwelling by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). As an immersive tool for experimental thinking and design exploration, this project lays the groundwork for ongoing study and future project implications with its broad application of high-performance design strategies for a variety of typologies. The home was also recently recognized by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) with its highest honor—the COTE Top Ten Awards, 2021—for significant achievements in advancing climate action.

From the outset, the architect/owner chose the guiding principles from AIA COTE to set expectations and position the project as a learning lab. The design for Civitas embraced an experimental process for creative design strategies to address community engagement, promotion of equitable communities, biodiversity and nurturing ecosystems, water conservation and reclamation, right-sizing for economy, energy efficiency and onsite renewables, wellness and health, local resources and low material waste, change and adaptability, and discovery for new design opportunities. Within the site and program, the teams explored each opportunity to promote broader impact and increased design engagement. Site selection and response was also a critical factor. The River setting has a long history of natural disasters including floods, straight-line winds, seasonal severe weather, and earthquakes due to its location within the New Madrid seismic zone.

Why Civitas? The name Civitas, translated as “community”, was given to represent the family’s desire to create a meaningful family experience through connected spatial relationships, transparency, and material continuity. While producing all the same expressive elements of its new urbanist neighbors, Civitas introduces a new composition of material and transparency while reframing the spatial and architectural expectations of an environmentally responsible house.

Overlooking the Mississippi River and riverside Greenbelt Park, Civitas is a visible and present reminder of our responsibility as stewards of the environment and celebrates our appreciation for our natural resources. Civitas is, at its heart, a home for today and tomorrow. With a 200-year design life cycle, it will evolve and adapt to the changing ways in which we live and respond to the needs of the many families who will call it home. All the while, it will serve as a place for learning and inspiration as it moves us forward as a community and as a firm into a more environmentally conscious world lead by design and innovation.