EMBEDDING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

academic - partner / 2018 / community resource center

programs used: Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, AutoCAD with Katie Reilly, all design development and drawing production responsibilities were shared equally strategies to retain water on site site section, not to a scale (A - A) evacuate tubing double skin & thermal wall concrete pedestal community state and ampitheater typical upper floor building & site system integration (B-B) concrete thermal wall evacuated tubing

This site straddles the boundary between a lively and active commercial zone and a sea of parking in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. The project explores the many facets of environmental performance, including stormwater management and addressing the neighborhood’s connectivity issues. It integrates a purposeful pedestrian path to and across the site and through community spaces that the neighborhood currently lacks.

Evacuated tubing acts as shading and supplies domestic hot water.

In the winter, the thermal wall supplies heat to the interior. In the summer, a honeycomb panel in the glass shades the thermal wall to avoid overheating.

Concrete beams support the ground level, the beam material changes to glulam for the upper floors.

The project provides multiple points of connection between the elevated Summer St. and the at-grade Boston Wharf Rd. and Congress St. – through the interior and exterior of the building, improving circulation and the neighborhood’s connectivity.

The building’s structural and comfort systems are organized to allow the interior of the building to adapt to the neighborhood’s changing needs. The regular grid structure, large spans, and high load capacity can accommodate a wide variety of spatial configurations and many different programs, including a ceramics studio.

The project embeds energy harnessing functions into the building and site. The facade employs a number of passive heating and cooling strategies to reduce the building’s mechanical heating/cooling loads, while the chosen construction system enables the skin and guts of the building to be modified as the building use changes. Further, the project highlights the building’s passive energy harnessing capacity by foregrounding these systems on the building’s exterior.

The site and building strategy aims to resolve the water management issues that arise from the dominance of impervious surfaces in the neighbourhood by integrating stormwater detention and retention techniques into the neighbourhood amenities.

CLT plank horizontal structure convection cycle double skin facade rain garden connection to Summer St. public connection between street levels through the building geothermal heating/cooling