Schools: Can the Building Be the Teacher?

 

 

For this week's Y.E.O.W we'd like to share with you the idea of the integrated learning experience and learning from the actual building students use everyday.

 

We will focus on Renaissance Academy Secondary School (Grades 6-12) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, architect RRMM.

 

This building utilizes different sustainability and design strategies to educate its students and demonstrate through building usage the importance of sustainability.

 

http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

 

Why use artificial lighting if you can use daylight?

 

Daylit spaces are supplemented with dimming ballast electric lighting with photosensor and occupancy sensor controls. All classrooms provide natural daylight which optimizes the students work performance by 30% as opposed to artificial lighting.

 

 

 http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

There are 19 Light tubes pipe sunlight into interior spaces

 

http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

Need more green space? Why not use the roof?

Vegetated (Green) Roof – Red in Winter & green in Summer. Insulates building,filters & holds storm water & is a pleasant sight from the second story rooms. Students take trips on the walkable green roof to explore the vegetation and view the storm water systems.

 

http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

How is the building powered?

Photovoltaic power production

Solar thermal heating of kitchen and process water

Geothermal-tied Kitchen refrigerant

 

http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

Solar Thermal Collectors

http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

Students can learn how much power the building is generating at the kiosk in the main entry of the school.

Building Systems Data Public Display – publicly accessible, interactive, real-time displays of building energy use and production, water use and collection, carbon emissions, dollars saved, air quality, etc.

 

 
 

 

What happens to the rain water?

Rainwater collection used for toilet flushing, which is then dyed blue and the students can identify this is collected rain water being used now as grey water through the building. Clear pipes are located throughout the building so students can see the transformation and usage from rain water to grey water.

 http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

 

Wind Turbines

Converting Kinetic Energy from the Wind into Electric Power. Students can see the data from this in the kiosk information board.  

 

 http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

Zero Runoff Site

 http://www.vefp.org/2010Conference/presentations/RenaissanceAcademy.pdf

 

 

Students are learning all this information before even opening a textbook. Should all schools be required to incorporate integrated learning through building design? Imagine if you could learn more about a building then leaky roofs from your grammar school. Can this create a new and more enlightened generation of students?  

 

 

 

Visit: http://www.vbgov.com/government/offices/eso/sustainability-plan/Documents/school-presentation-11.pdf to learn more about the school.

Could rooftop apartments transform suburban retail?

For this week’s YEOW, we’d like to share with you a recent post from Greater Greater Washington blog from writer Ryan Arnold about retrofitting suburbia. Ryan poses an intriguing question: Could rooftop apartments transform suburban retail?

Implementing the redevelopment model he proposes could completely transform our traditionally auto-dependent suburban retail strip malls into mixed use districts, without having to knock them down and rebuild them from the ground up. Certainly worth mulling over...

Here’s the post:

Suburban retail areas are redeveloping into mixed use neighborhoods all over the DC region. Usually redevelopment means mid-rises replace single-story retail, but could another model work? What if retail strips added rooftop apartments?

 Concept rendering. All images by the author. All images from GGW.

From more livable communities to less congested highways, mixed-use development has many benefits, and is in high demand. In places where market demand or zoning regulations prohibit larger scale mid-rises, maybe innovative design can help bring those benefits too.

Imagine a row of small apartments added to a big box store's roof. Let's explore how that might work, using the Safeway supermarket in Seven Corners as a test subject.

The Safeway, as it exists now. All images by the author. All images from GGW.

Since the building is so wide, a narrow second story near the back would be completely invisible from the front. Thus, the building can accommodate apartments with minimal to no effect on the store's appearance.

What could fit?

The rear wall of this Safeway is long enough to fit 10 apartments, each 25 feet long, with a gap in the middle to provide access to stairs. The paved area behind the store is wide enough to accommodate stairs and a narrow parking lane for residents, with enough room left over for two vehicles to pass each other.

All images by the author. All images from GGW.

A terrace in front of the apartments acts as a walkway, providing access to each unit. Rows of windows high on the front wall bring sunlight in without compromising privacy or subjecting residents to views of the store's roof.

All images by the author. All images from GGW.

Inside, each unit is a 300 square foot efficiency style apartment.

All images by the author. All images from GGW.

These apartments may not be luxurious, but maybe that's OK. Given rising demand for mixed-use living, apartments like these could provide scarce affordable housing to tenants who want to walk to shopping areas. Perhaps retail workers at the very stores below might be able to live here.

Meanwhile, nearly invisible apartments atop strip malls might conceivably face less opposition from surrounding communities than large new buildings. Or maybe not; that's hard to predict. But new housing has to go somewhere, and it's better if we can fit more of it in existing communities. Maybe this is a way to do that.

Is this actually realistic?

There are clearly challenges to making an idea like this work.

First, the structural challenge. Since the roof wasn't designed to support a second story, the building would likely need structural reinforcement. That's unlikely to happen in a functioning supermarket that's open to customers. But it may be practical during renovations, for adaptive reuse, or in new buildings.

Second, the regulatory challenge. Many suburban retail strips are retail-only because that's what the zoning allows. Since it often takes years to go through the difficult process of getting zoning approval for mixed-use, it's often only worth developers' trouble for large projects.

Finally, the developer challenge. Developers often specialize in one type of project. Toll Brothers builds suburban houses, Abdo builds urban mixed-use mid-rises, Macerich specializes in shopping malls. It would likely take a special case for a suburban retail developer to take on apartments, or an apartment developer to build a big box.

But people used to cite similar challenges as impediments to New Urbanism, and it's booming. Where there's a will, there's a way.

And there could be a will. Demand for convenient mixed-use living keeps growing, while our cities keep getting more and more expensive. Something is going to have to give. This idea could provide affordable housing that's walkable to convenient destinations.

It just takes a little creativity. And, maybe, a small scale pilot project or two.

Visit the GGW blog for the original post: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23321/could-rooftop-apartments-transform-suburban-retail/

Clyfford Still Museum

Scope

Programming, Site Design, Complete Architectural Services, Exhibition Design, 
Furniture Design

Special Features

Painting exhibition galleries, education facilities, library and archives, 
viewable collection storage, conservation laboratory

Material Systems

Site-cast architectural concrete walls, concrete structural ceiling slabs, 
daylighting system

In 2007, Allied Works was selected to design the
 Clyfford Still Museum, a single-artist institution devoted 
to the life and work of one of the 20th century’s most 
influential and enigmatic painters. The site for the museum 
resides in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado, a district 
inhabited by buildings of grand collective and cultural narrative.

The 28,000sf museum mediates this setting with two distinct acts of architecture. The first prepares the site by creating a dense grove of deciduous trees - a place of refuge from the intense light of central Colorado. The second act of architecture looks to the earth. 

The Museum is conceived as a solid, a continuous form that is opened up by natural light. Walls of textured concrete form the primary building envelope, interior walls and structural system. The entrance, deeply recessed beneath the cantilevered walls, holds the visitor to the earth. The lower level houses the education, archive and storage spaces. In the upper level galleries, the visitor moves through a series of nine distinct volumes where they encounter the work of Clyfford Still. Overhead, an open lattice of concrete unites the body of the building and offers illumination and connection to the atmosphere of the city. The galleries respond to the evolving character of Still’s art, changing scale and proportion, while varying the intensity of light.

For more information please see link below:

http://www.alliedworks.com/projects/clyfford-still-museum/

Making Our Cities "Just Green Enough"

Waterway Greenway Perspective 2 courtesy of the blog Space Observatory.

The cycle of gentrification is all too common in America as redevelopment improves amenities and the number of people choosing urban life over the suburbs grows. A neighborhood with low average incomes and lax economic activity finds itself the focus of urban planners, businesses and developers. Key investments are made, the neighborhood becomes trendy and desirable to newcomers, and often the original neighborhood residents get pushed from their community due to rising rent and property assessments. Gentrification is a constant challenge to cities that try to serve their residents while maximizing economic activity and revenues.

What about environmental justice and gentrification? The following article discusses tactics to make improvements to the green spaces in communities without triggering the cycle of gentrification.

Read more about the "just green enough" concept here.

http://www.100resilientcities.org/blog/entry/pretty-park-affordable-rent-making-neighborhoods-just-green-enough

Solar Powered Charging Tables Installed in NYC's Bryant Park

Solar Powered Charging Tables Installed in NYC's Bryant Park

Note from Erin: Okay guys, at first I was like, "Why are they enabling us to be even more tied to our electronics!!"  But the reality is, when I travel, I need the outlet.  At the end of the day, it is my responsibility to get my eyes off the screen and my toes in the grass.  Keep powered y'all, but don't forget what powers you!!

Thank you to John Fennell for this post!

 

Posted by katie hosmer on August 13, 2014 at 3:21am 

CityCharge is an urban project in which solar powered charging stations were placed throughout New York City's Bryant Park. Gone are the days of having to buy an expensive coffee in order to use an outlet to charge your smartphone!

These free, innovative stations are a collaborative project between Bryant Park Corporation, solar companyGreen Barrel Energy Inc., and high quality street furniture manufacturer Landscape Forms. Each table has six different charging cables that can fit most electronic devices. The stations are set on five swiveling wheels with locks so that they can be moved around the park as needed to make space during public events. Additionally, the solar panel overhead can be manually rotated to point directly towards the sun.

“The design was inspired by people and how they use public spaces,” explained CityCharge Industrial Designer Ignacio Ciocchini. “It is round, easy to move, and has a communal table that encourages social interaction.” Currently in the prototype testing phase, the plan is to install six more machines in Bryant Park and then to expand throughout New York City and the United States.

Green Barrel Energy Inc. website
Landscape Forms website
via [Inhabitat]