Today Duke University celebrates the opening of Environment Hall. The 70,000 GSF building is the new home for the University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
As the new front door for the School, Environment Hall, appropriately, employs low-energy sustainable building systems aimed at reducing the project’s environmental impact and serving as a teaching tool for the School and its community. The building’s systems include solar photovoltaic power generation, solar hot water, chilled beam cooling system, daylight harvesting, high-performance glazing, water-efficient fixtures, green roofs and rainwater harvesting. The building parti consists of a simple glass box housing a south facing “thermal” corridor which utlizies related temperature criteria to reduce the building’s energy use and buggers the adjacent classrooms and offices from direct solar gain. The five-story building houses classrooms, an auditorium, private offices, open office spaces, shared work spaces, a computer lab and an environmental art gallery as well as an outdoor courtyard. Environment Hall serves to unify and integrate the Nicholas School of the Environment.
The building broke ground on April 20, 2013 and celebrated its topping out on May 3, 2013.
Related
Duke To Open New $40 Million Environment Hall On April 10
Environmental Hall to be the Greenest Facility at Duke
Groundbreaking at Duke University
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Energy Savings: Duke University
Topping Out at Duke University
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Construction Update: Duke University
Inspiration for Interior Finishes
Sandrine Héroux, Sophie McKenzie, and Emily Chowdhury are each members of our in-house Fabrication team. Their day-to-day work centers on a simple question: what changes when design becomes something people can physically test?
These women challenge the notion of fabrication as a support service, framing it instead as an essential component of architectural authorship, a way to test ideas, share agency, and widen the boundaries of what architectural practice can include.
In our most recent blog, they discuss their individual paths in architecture and reflect on their experience using fabrication as a tool for fostering shared agency, community engagement and broadening the role of the architect. Link in bio!
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