| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
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Green Building School | |
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Behnisch in Boston | |
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Behnisch in Boston Energy Smart The building's exterior is characterized by a double-glazed facade, covering 32 percent of the building, and a series of panels of several metal types, creating a distinctive horizontal banding. The curtain wall is given a playful variety through multi-hued curtains, sun-protective blinds, and exterior garden terraces. Sophisticated shading devices work with the highly insulated glazing to provide optimum protection from solar heat gain in summer. The double-skinned facades drive ventilation in the summer and act as greenhouses that maximize solar gain in the winter. Concrete slab construction, roof-mounted solar panels, and an innovative cooling system that uses waste steam from a nearby power plant to cool the building add to the Genzyme Center's efficiency. It consumes an estimated 25 percent less energy than a comparable non-LEED building. Its open atrium helps to ventilate the building naturally, exhausting excess hot air directly out through the roof. The building form admits and enhances abundant daylight. Many of the offices are located on the perimeter for direct access, while offices on the interior enjoy indirect light from strategically located heliostats, mirrors, and reflective surfaces that bounce light throughout the atrium. Office walls and interior cubicle partitions are typically transparent or translucent. These features enable approximately 75 percent of the employees to work without electric light during daylight hours. A green roof — featuring living vegetation — helps to eliminate storm water runoff, and water sensors in the gardens prevent over-irrigation. Quality Indoors Aside from its energy-related functions, the atrium is also intended to invigorate the experience of workers and visitors. The interior courtyard volume connects all floors and brings light to interior gardens on each floor. These gardens, some with fountains and trees, serve public and private purposes, including alternative working environments. Some of them form a physical and visual extension of individual work spaces. Covered gardens, developed as part of the central hall structure, provide a buffer zone to the outdoor climate. In material selection, Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner worked to further ensure that the Genzyme Center could be a model for sustainability. More than 75 percent of the building materials had recycled content, and more than half were from local sources (within 500 miles, or 800 kilometers). The wood used in the construction came from well-managed forests, as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and 90 percent of all construction waste was recycled. The architects helped the tenant select furniture and equipment consistent with these sustainable practices. The open, spatial organization has been likened to that in a small town, with squares, paths, and parks, as well as public and private areas with various transition zones. It is hoped that its welcoming appearance will set a precedent of quality and vibrancy for future high-tech development in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge. The building received an award as one of the Top Ten Green Projects of 2004 from the AIA. Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... Project Credits Architect: Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner
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