(List#113) 5 Approaches to Designing Sustainable Buildings on Campus
Buildings that inspire sustainable thinking.
This week’s List looks at five educational buildings (university and high school) so beautiful in their design and sustainable in their approach that they deserve to be shared (and replicated). They also help us rethink our buildings, not only from a sustainable design perspective, but also as tools for promoting and embedding sustainable thinking within the institution.
1.DEMOUNTABLE
Swiss architecture studio Itten + Brechbuhl created a temporary timbre university sports hall in Zurich, with aspirations for its demountable construction to be “the new standard in architecture”. The building replaces four sports halls at the University of Zurich with glued laminated timbre structure clad in larch timber. The three-story building is made to be easily deconstructed after ten years of use.
2. SHARED SPACES
AOR Architects designed the Tuusula High School and Cultural Centre in Tuusula, Finland. The project uses industrial timber log for a large public building. The space is a high school during the day, but then used by the local music school, arts school, community college and municipal cultural services at night.
3.ENERGY
Behnisch Architekten completed a new academic building for Harvard University that features hydroformed stainless steel screens that are designed to mitigate solar heat gain during warm months while allowing sunlight to penetrate during the winter. The building also includes shading devices, natural ventilation, solar panels, vegetated roof terraces, efficient systems for lighting, heating and cooling.
4. PLAYFUL
Spanish architect Andres Jaque’s (who is also dean of Colombia University’s Graduate School of Architecture) Office for Political Innovation completed an early education school near Madrid. The six storey building features classrooms and teaching spaces interspersed with indoor gardens. The building is organised as a mini vertical city, each level has a different feel and the age of the pupils increases as you move up. Throughout are embedded opportunities for the children to learn about nature, greenhouses, various indoor gardens filled with plants thanks to reclaimed water and soil tanks located below. Cork is used as external cladding and thermal insulation, covering 80% of the building.
5. TRADITION
Danish practice Henning Larsen Architects is building a mass timber university building on the Faroe Islands. The campus is organised around a set of existing school and education buildings and will follow a similar feel to create the look of a cluster of houses. Constructed from glued laminated timber and cross laminated timber and topped with a turfed roof that will allow the campus to blend into the landscape. The collection of buildings is intentionally placed to create natural shelter at various points around campus, drawing on ancient construction methods that have been used across Faroese settlements to protect buildings from North Atlantic weather conditions.
This time last year...
Giselle Weybrecht
Have a great week!
Giselle