As a collaboration between the architect, engineers, client and builder, the Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex used an integrated and iterative approach to leverage energy and performance modeling informing everything from programming to envelope design. Through this process, our design team was able to ensure the comfort of the occupants in the building through the use of simulation tools that tested the performance of the environment within the building.
Clever detailing and thermal modeling enabled the team to minimize thermal breaks despite extensive integrated catwalk systems with substantial structural loads in the custom curtain wall. CFD modeling ensured the triple glazing would provide a comfortable interior environment on the coldest days without supplemental heating and the chilled beams wouldn’t create areas of discomfort. Daylighting studies explored the performance of the atrium skylights, adjusting their orientation to minimize interior glare and maximize their daylighting potential.
Unitized Curtain Wall Thermal Modeling
This performance-driven design process coupled with automated systems such as daylighting controls and window shades ensure occupant comfort in a building that is tuned to its environment.
Related:
Energy Savings: Northeastern University’s ISEC
The Boston Globe Reviews the ISEC
PAYETTE + Metropolis Think Tank
Celebrating the ISEC at Northeastern University
Northeastern ISEC featured in Architectural Record
Integrated Building Science and Design at Northeastern University
Glazing and Winter Comfort Tool 2.0
PAYETTE Receives AIA TAP Innovation Award!
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.