Week 8 – Green architecture: The California Academy of Sciences


The California science museum is the work of Italian architect Renzo Piano. As a LEED platinum certified a green building, the building highlights the integration of various elements such as function, form, and environment, forming an organic and overall all-around green design concept. It breaks the previous way of relying only on technical support and brings the thinking mode of green building into the whole process of project implementation. The project fully integrates architectural art, technology and the surrounding environment of the building to make the overall building as a second natural environment.

Site Selection – The California Science Museum is located in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Golden Gate Park has a good ecological environment, surrounded by many green areas, mountains, and parks. There is a fast elevated road, two urban trunk roads, several bicycle lanes and walking trails in the area. By the end of the week, all motorway lanes have been converted into bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways for people to travel. Therefore, a good ecological environment and convenient transportation are important factors in the location of the California Science Museum. People can not only share the public resources of the park but also alleviate the pressure of traffic and land resources due to the large-scale venue construction in the city center.






Design concept - on the east side of the golden gate park, the science museum consists of the museum of natural history, planetarium, and aquarium. The three pavilions share a rich external landscape environment, public, and parking Spaces, commercial retail resources, demonstrating the intensive and efficient use of resources. This combination also reflects the original design concept of the science museum -- sharing, reducing consumption, blending and saving the land.

Adaptability – The Science Museum looks like a transparent box. In order to maximize the natural light, the building uses a thin steel frame and a glass curtain wall. The entire building achieves 90% natural light in the area, while the other 10% use solar lighting. The Science Museum is divided into four functional areas: exhibition area, office area, logistics area, and leisure business area. The south-facing office space makes full use of natural lighting to create an efficient office environment, while the northbound commercial space is relatively soft. The planetarium and the rainforest exhibition hall, which require roof lighting, are placed in a central position, and efficient control measures keep the indoor temperature and humidity stable.

Today's green buildings use a lot of new technology, and new materials are used to alleviate climate problems. What interests me about this project is site selection. The location of the building should be based on the layout of the entire city, and the landscape, especially these large venues, can easily cause traffic congestion and the waste of land resources. I think green building can't just focus on its performance, but also on whether it fits the surrounding environment and complements other urban buildings.

References:

Efficient building design. https://www.calacademy.org
Mass design group. Purpose Built Case Study: The California academy of sciences. https://massdesigngroup.org/sites/default/files/multiple-file/2017-11/Purpose%20Built_The%20California%20Academy%20of%20Sciences.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9.1 - Zero Carbon Kindergarten: Lions Solhuset

Image
Lions Solhuset Kindergarten is located in Horsholm Kommune, north of Copenhagen. The sunshine and fresh air allow children to enjoy a happy life in a healthy environment. It is designed and built according to the principles of Active House. The principles of Active House can be defined. In order to create a comfortable living space for the user without damaging the environment. The design team analyzed the building's natural lighting, energy, and indoor climate while determining the shape and orientation of the building based on where the sun moved, ensuring maximum use of daylight and solar energy. In order to achieve a seamless transition between the various functional areas and indoors and outdoors, the site selection and construction of the building are as natural as possible. As can be seen from the images, the entire kindergarten's functional area includes large and small event areas, public event rooms and restaurants, and the outdoor area is furnish...
Read more

Week 2.1 - The strategies of the renovation of GWL terrein community

Image
The community is located in the northwestern part of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Community functions include residential housing, living and working housing, community centers, etc. The sustainable construction of this community began in 1993 and lasted for 5 years. Through excellent renovation layout and traffic design, the community has become a green ecological residential area. Source https://www.itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/19.-092211_ITDP_NED_GWL.pdf The community respected the landscape and style of the original industrial land during the renovation, transforming the old factory into community service facilities and commercial office buildings. The original water towers, workshops, pump houses, and rivers were preserved. The factory was transformed into a commercial Space, such as cafes and gyms. The pump house has been transformed into the smallest hotel in the area, and the water tower is still supplying water to the community. The community apartment i...
Read more

Week 10.1 - Green buildings in Vietnam

Image
Stacking Green  Urbanization leads to excessive population growth and also leads to a decline in quality of life and loss of greening. “Stacking Green” is a private residential project built in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2011, which opens up the possibility of changing this situation. The citizens of Ho Chi Minh City love the streets and are full of tropical plants and flowers, so in this project, the designers operate horizontally arranged to plant troughs to form the facade of the building. The green building facade not only provides residents with a comfortable visual experience, the natural wind is introduced into the building as much as possible to improve the indoor thermal environment, and also enhances the biodiversity of the surrounding environment. The green façade and roof garden protect the occupants from direct sunlight, street noise, and pollution. In tropical climates, the natural ventilation of the building is particularly important. Good natural...
Read more