ORE Design + Technology

ORE Design + Technology was founded by Brooklyn-based Architect Thomas Kosbau in 2009. ORE has realized projects in a wide variety of applications, from restaurants and office space to residential and commercial, as well as furniture and industrial design. In 2011, ORE designed and realized Riverpark Farm, New York City’s first portable rooftop farm. Constructed from repurposed milk crates, the farm is accessory to a restaurant, and provides fresh produce for their menu. The Farm has won the The Municipal Arts Society of New York’s “City Livability Award and was the Financial Times/Citigroup Ingenuity Award runner-up for revolutionary civic infrastructural design. ORE also designed and oversaw construction of the Dekalb Market, a pop-up retail concept constructed of salvaged shipping containers in downtown Brooklyn. Designed to reactivate a stalled construction site, Dekalb’s pioneering program utilizes the inherent modularity of shipping containers to create a public marketplace was assembled rapidly and can be reconfigured and moved rapidly. Winning the 2012 NYC Design award and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s “Building Brooklyn Award,” Dekalb Market was a centerpiece of the downtown area, bringing together artists, makers, restaurateurs and entrepreneurs in one location that includes storefronts, restaurants, and a performance venue. As an innovative technology firm, ORE continues to research and develop new applications for existing technologies. In 2010, 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. ORE took first place in the 2012 California AIA “Drylands Competition” with a proposal to re-engineer Los Angeles’ fresh water supply system pioneering a zero-energy desalination system. ORE’s current projects range from a bio-mimetic cactus that harvests drinking water from the air in arid environments and a jacket/tent for homeless housing made from recycled umbrella fabric.