The metal screen that wraps around much of the new Science and Engineering Complex at Harvard University is a piece of advanced engineering in motionless action.
Made of 14,000 panels of precisely formed and cut stainless steel, it appears to be a gigantic cheese grater. But the facade is actually a finely tuned device for controlling both the light and the heat that enters the building. Modeled to block the heat of the summer sun and allow it in during the winter, the facade’s panels are an intricate but stationary control system that dramatically reduces the building’s heating and cooling requirements compared to a traditional HVAC system, bringing the complex’s carbon emissions down by an estimated 42%. The facade manipulates light by selectively reflecting the sun into the darker parts of the half-million-square-foot building, cutting down on its electricity costs.
“The idea was to do as low-tech of a building as possible,” says architect Stefan Behnisch, whose Boston- and Germany-based firmBehnisch Architektendesignedthe complex. Reducing the building’s heating, cooling, and lighting requirements is part of the way Behnisch and the university are hoping to address the large greenhouse-gas footprint of such a big complex. Buildings account fornearly three-quarters of electricity usein the U.S., and even some supposedly high-performance buildings rely on energy-inefficient mechanical systems to keep them comfortable. Using a passive facade proved a much more environmentally sustainable approach. “The goal is to keep the sun on the 200 hottest days completely out of the building.”Intended to be one of the greenest buildings at the university, the project was designed to meet the LEED Platinum environmental standard and the Living Building Challenge health and wellness standard, which certifies that its building materials are free of common harmful chemicals such as asbestos and chlorofluorocarbons. The building also met the standards of Harvard’s own Healthier Building Academy, a partnership among faculty from the university’s Office for Sustainability and the schools of engineering, public health, and medicine.
Behnisch says it was important from the start that the project be a physical representation of the university’s scientific focus. The facade became the most visible way of putting those ideas into built form. Behnisch Architekten partnered with the environmental engineering and design firm Transsolar to develop the facade’s approach and refine its design. Shaped like punched-through picture frames, with elongated fins around their top edges to block or redirect the sun, the panels create a grid outside the building that, while not invisible, still allows people inside to see out.
Behnisch reached out to German fabricator Edelstahl-Mechanik to try a different approach, using a single form and high-pressure water to push the flat metal plates into shape and laser-cutting the fine details for each panel. “We were able to save about a third of the material,” Behnisch says.
The real savings will come over the life of the building, as the stationary facade passively blocks heat and allows in light. Along with the building’s other environmentally sustainable features, the facade will help it produce fewer carbon emissions than a comparably sized building.
The facade system builds on one used in another, smaller project, in Switzerland, but Behnisch says the Harvard example shows how effective the concept can be at reducing energy requirements on a large scale. He hopes to refine and replicate the concept on other projects going forward.
“When we look at the energy consumption of the building sector, we need to become more efficient. And the efficiency should be triggered by design, by intelligence, and not just throwing more mechanical elements in the building,” he says. “The high functionality is determined by an intelligent design. And I thought that is what this school of engineering is all about.”
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