ICFF NYC 2018

Thomas Kosbau
Founder & Principal Architect
ORE Design + Technology


Thomas Kosbau is Founder and Principal Architect of ORE Design and Technology, based in Brooklyn, New York. Through his work at ORE, Kosbau strives to uncover, develop and refine unrealized creative potentials embedded in scientific research, technological innovation, and the natural world. ORE’s architectural practice specializes in both high-end residential and commercial design, where he has incorporated proprietary architectural and technological systems that push the boundaries of today’s urban typology. Recent work includes DeKalb Market and Riverpark Farm, the city’s first portable rooftop farm; GrowNYC’s community center called Farmhouse, the precursor to Kosbau’s highly anticipated design for the nonprofit’s Bronx-based Foodhub. Dekalb Market won the 2012 NYC Design award and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s “Building Brooklyn Award,” the Riverpark Farm has won the Municipal Arts Society of New York’s “City Livability Award”, an Architizer “A+” award and was the Financial Times/Citigroup Ingenuity Award runner-up for revolutionary civic infrastructural design. ORE’s forward-leaning projects internationally have been receiving accolades as well: ORE took first place in the IIDA Awards competition with a proposal to replace Incheon, Korea’s infrastructure of conventional asphalt roads with organically grown sandstone streets. ORE also won first place in RIBA’s International Energy Revolution competition with its Hydral Energy Production Project, an integrative approach to local energy production using algae panels. Kosbau took first place in the California AIA “Drylands Competition” with a proposal to re-engineer Los Angeles’ fresh water supply system pioneering a zero-energy desalination system.

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