Project Description/Project Title and Data: A001.01 Building Area: (sf): 16,000 We designed a 16,000 sf research facility, residence hall, and conference center for students and scientists at the rainforest's edge. Our design fits delicately into this fragile, beautiful environment, serves as a model for green design practices, and helps cultivate a deep respect for place. The design was guided by four broad tenets: RESPECT THE SITE The building's wedge-like form conforms to the available disturbed ground, three stories below the road. This avoids removal of any vegetation or modification of the existing site. LONG LIFE, LOOSE FIT Residence hall levels are gathered around a central area (much as dwellings in local villages), to encourage socializing and the sharing of knowledge. In the spirit of the green principle long life, loose fit, the sleeping rooms themselves have non-load bearing walls to allow future flexibility in reconfiguring the building to meet changing needs. DEMONSTRATE CONSERVATION THROUGH DESIGN Beyond native materials, energy conservation, natural ventilation and daylighting, water conservation and reuse, we saw NamanaBe Hall as a case study. How can a building reconcile a conservation agenda with the disturbance that accompanies construction, and teach visitors what conservation means in architecture? CREATE SOCIAL SPACES Each level's gathering space is open to the atrium, enhancing opportunities for exchange between researchers and students. Outdoor stairs, balconies, and verandas large and small, and a roof terrace, provide different observation points of the rainforest and serve as places to come together - or get away. The mandate to build sustainably and the goal to preserve biodiversity each have their origins in a deep respect for the fragility of the natural world, understanding of our place in it, and belief in the possibility of making a positive difference. That difference is made one National Park at a time, one species at a time, one building at a time. Cost per Square Foot: withheld Construction Cost withheld Date of Substantial Completion: 2012 Location of Project: Ranomafana, Madagascar Type of Project: Residence hall, research laboratories, conference, and outreach center Construction materials, mechanical systems or other pertinent information: Local Materials, No Deforestation, Low Impact Construction, Passive Solar 1
A ten hour drive into the rainforest, at the edge of a national park (photo taken from the park) we designed a 16,000 sf research and outreach facility, conference center, lab and residence hall for Stony Brook University. 2
View from the first building at the outpost - LovaBe Hall - completed 10+ years ago. The original structure also has exterior stairs that are social spaces, and this photo shows how NamanaBe Hall's main stair echoes that and enhances the activity and movement within the core of the emergent campus. 3
The main aperture of the building focuses on framing the rainforest beyond. 4
When Dr Wright realized she was discovering both new species and species believed extinct in forest land that was being illegally logged she lobbied for the creation of Ranomafana National Park. She then worked to establish a permanent research station on the edge of the park, with facilities to attract researchers and study-abroad students. And so this is where architecture enters into the storyline. It is only the stage set, a bit player in a much larger drama, but still we couldn t dream up a better example to illustrate how and why design matters. 5
The bridge and cantilevered veranda extend a path directly into the rainforest canopy. This provides a perfect viewing platform for witnessing the diverse wildlife beyond and cultivating a desire to help preserve it in scientists, locals, and eco-tourists alike. 6
The ventilating skylight and the three tanks for the solar hot water heater can be seen on the roof, which also contains patio space and a medicinal garden of native plants. 7
The building's design encourages communion with the site in so many ways - places for gathering, for private discussions, and for individual retreat and observation. The Design was guided by 4 broad Tenets: RESPECT THE SITE LONG LIFE LOOSE FIT DEMONSTRATE CONSERVATION THROUGH DESIGN CREATE SOCIAL SPACES 8
Respect the site. Given that this project has conservation built into its DNA (as a research facility in a vanishing rainforest to study biodiversity), the mandate to build sustainably could not have been clearer. Constrain It was our intention to build only on previously disturbed land within the boundaries of the abandoned rice paddy. The site's existing conditions included a creek retaining wall, and a steep bank to the river. Merely a sliver, the remaining land then drove our design of the building s form. Connect The site and the client both made prominent the desire for an immediate and compelling connection between the existing arrival point and the immersive experience of hovering in the tree tops of the adjacent Ranomafana National Park. Touch the earth lightly A desire to retain future flexibility and limit our impact on the site led to a further constraint - we would hover or perch delicately, touching the earth in as few places as possible. 9
Long Life, Loose Fit Let s not design buildings that are so rigid in their design that when their mission changes they must be destroyed or abandoned. Future flexibility in reconfiguring will allow the building to continue meeting the changing needs of the community. Interior separating partitions are non-load bearing essentially brick curtains that can be reconfigured if, for example, a residence hall floor needs to be converted to a health clinic, or an interpretive museum for eco-tourists. 10
Demonstrate Conservation through Design A Nature Center is a delicate dance, since construction requires destruction, and housing a conservation agenda consumes energy and uses up materials. Throughout the Design & Construction process, we asked ourselves, How can a building reconcile that, strike a balance and perhaps teach its visitors what conservation means in architecture? 11
Demonstrate Conservation through Design Enhanced Daylighting: Ambient light is provided to all private spaces via windows, while diffuse light enters all shared areas via the atrium tower. Natural Ventilation & Cooling: Cool air rises from the river, into the bottom of the atrium; then exhausts through the ventilating skylight. This draws warm stale air from each floor along the way. 12
Demonstrate Conservation through Design Habitable planted roof of native and medicinal plants, gray water recycling, solar hot water, natural cooling, and enhanced daylighting. Furnishings and artwork. Reclaimed, vintage, and local artisan work make up the entirety of interior fixtures. Low-flow plumbing fixtures selected because potable water is procured by filtering the adjacent creek through sedimentation tanks; rain water collection and reuse helps further reduce draw from creek as noted elsewhere. Atrium. With operable windows at its low point and a ventilating skylight at its peak, the atrium tower serves as the building s central stack. The skylight peak is oriented for maximum indirect gain, infusing spaces on each level with ambient light throughout the seasons. Interior brick curtain walls are finished in crisp white plaster, increasing the spread of diffuse natural light. 13
Demonstrate Conservation through Design In Madagascar, native materials and careful stewardship of resources are a necessity. NO deforestation. The building was sited so that zero trees were removed; the canopy now reaches to the veranda. Near-zero emissions. The building s emissions have been limited to the greatest extent possible: the only conditioned interior spaces are in humidity-sensitive research laboratories Locally obtained supplies. The granite we used is local; the bricks are baked in roadside kilns by the farmers terracing the hills. Sand for the concrete came from the Namorona River, and the eucalyptus floors were harvested from an on-island plantation. Rainwater collected from roofs is stored in a 3,000 L cistern, providing all toilet water. 14
Creating Social Spaces Each level's gathering space is open to the atrium, knitting the three stories together and further enhancing opportunities for education and exchange. Even the residence hall levels have a gathering space for impromptu lessons and sharing of research. The modest sleeping rooms (plaster-clad on nonloadbearing brick beyond) gather around this public space like many Malagasy village layouts. 15
Creating Social Spaces The verandas, balconies and stair landings are the social spaces and places for inspiration and contemplation. 16
Creating Social Spaces A visitor is drawn through to a large veranda open to the spectacle of Ranomafana National Park. It is one of many outdoor spaces encouraging observation and communion with the rainforest. 17
Creating Social Spaces We sought to create a building from which students and researchers might develop firsthand, career-influencing experiences; profound insights; and a deep, enduring respect for what remains of the natural world by encouraging observation of, and communion with, the rainforest. 18