A groundbreaking on Oct. 11 kicked off a project aiming to construct the largest Living Building Challenge-certified residence on a university campus. The Living Village, a 45,000 sf home for Yale University Divinity School graduate students, “will make an ecological statement about the need to build in harmony with the natural world while training students to become ‘apostles of the environment’,” according to Bruner/Cott, which is leading the design team that includes Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Andropogon Associates.
Designed to achieve 24.4 EUI (energy use intensity per sf annually), the facility will be net-positive for energy. Solar roof tiles and a photovoltaic canopy over a parking lot will generate 310,000 kWh of electricity, or 105% of the power the residence consumes averaged out over a year, according to Jason Jewhurst, AIA, Principal, Bruner/Cott.
The power system will have a net-metered connection to the grid. “We expect to generate surplus energy for six months of the year,” Jewhurst says. Ducted air-source heat pumps will provide heating and cooling. Fresh air will be supplied by a separate dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS).
A water reclamation system with a capacity for about 900,000 gallons a year will treat greywater for reuse in toilets, laundry, and drip irrigation, Jewhurst says. Underground cisterns will collect rainwater runoff from the roof.
Below-market-rate residential units will range from micro studios to one and two-bedroom apartments. A single-loaded corridor layout ensures that all rooms have views of a central courtyard. Common areas will include lounges, study nooks, and a community kitchen that will host celebrations and events. Outdoor amenities on the 4.5-acre site include an amphitheater, community terrace, and regenerative landscape over a former parking lot.
The superstructure will be assembled using low-carbon mass-timber and dimensional lumber. All building materials will meet the rigorous requirements of the Living Building Challenge’s materials petal that specifies products free of toxins and harmful chemicals.
Real-time water and energy usage monitors will provide residents and the university community with insight on sustainable buildings.
On the project team:
Owner and/or developer: Yale Divinity School
Design architect: Bruner/Cott Architects with Höweler + Yoon Architecture
Landscape Architect: Andropogon Associates
MEP engineer: van Zelm Engineers
Structural engineer: Silman
Related Stories
| Jul 11, 2014
$44.5 million Centennial Hall opens at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Centennial Hall houses the College of Education and Human Sciences and consolidates teacher education. It is the first new academic building on the UW-Eau Claire campus in more than 30 years.
| Jul 10, 2014
Berkeley Lab opens 'world's most comprehensive building efficiency simulator'
DOE’s new FLEXLAB is a first-of-its-kind simulator that lets users test energy-efficient building systems individually or as an integrated system, under real-world conditions.
| Jul 9, 2014
Harvard Business School to build large-scale conference center
Expected to open in 2018, the facility will combine the elements of a large-scale conference center, a performance space, and an intimate community forum. The new building will be designed by Boston-based William Rawn and Associates.
| Jul 7, 2014
7 emerging design trends in brick buildings
From wild architectural shapes to unique color blends and pattern arrangements, these projects demonstrate the design possibilities of brick.
Sponsored | | Jul 7, 2014
Channel glass illuminates science at the University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco’s new John Lo Schiavo Center for Science and Innovation brings science to the forefront of academic life. Its glossy, three-story exterior invites students into the facility, and then flows sleekly down into the hillside where below-grade laboratories and classrooms make efficient use of space on the landlocked campus.
| Jul 2, 2014
Emerging trends in commercial flooring
Rectangular tiles, digital graphic applications, the resurgence of terrazzo, and product transparency headline today’s commercial flooring trends.
| Jun 30, 2014
Research finds continued growth of design-build throughout United States
New research findings indicate that for the first time more than half of projects above $10 million are being completed through design-build project delivery.
| Jun 18, 2014
Arup uses 3D printing to fabricate one-of-a-kind structural steel components
The firm's research shows that 3D printing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
| Jun 16, 2014
6 U.S. cities at the forefront of innovation districts
A new Brookings Institution study records the emergence of “competitive places that are also cool spaces.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' design selected for new UCSC facility
The planned site is a natural landscape among redwood trees with views over Monterey Bay, a site that the architects have called “one of the most beautiful they have ever worked on.”
