projects
NRCC Environmental Tech Training Laboratories
spring 2011 (student design project)
To accommodate a building program that is constantly evolving (laboratory spaces used for the teaching and testing of sustainable energy technology in building construction), the building is designed with future expansion in mind. Therefore, the design utilizes a fully demountable facade.
The plan is divided into four primary lab spaces enclosed in a removable glass facade (with an array of removable external louver components both horizontal and vertical, solar thermal panels, and photovoltaic panels), and the core spaces (including bathrooms, a mechanical room, an auditorium space, and an administrative office) that are sandwiched between massive concrete walls which acts as the spine of the building both spatially and structurally.
To fully express the duality between the heavy concrete core spaces and the light steel laboratory spaces, the laboratories are literally hung from the core. Due to the steep slope of the site, the steel boxes are raised to different elevations so that they are constantly floating above the landscape.
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