I’ll start by saying that I know that we should consider Stanford’s current campus design language, but I’m going to be a bit bold and say that… I don’t really care for limestone and I think there’s more than enough of it on campus 😶
🖌 Form, materials, ideas
I want to focus on my favorite buildings on campus and try to use their design language.
Inspiration on campus
Denning House
The materials in the Denning House are absolutely stunning. I think for a school of sustainability, this would be an amazing look.
Windhover
The material palette here also seems to call back to the limestone motif without explicitly using it. I think this is a much more attractive look. Though I have heard it was quite expensive. Once again, though, the connection to nature is clear.
Select parts of McMurtry
🪴 Plants & nature
NO. LAWNS. ALLOWED.
I think some key goals should be to use native plants for the landscaping, and find a way to create pollinator habitats around the building.
🎛 Sustainability & systems
🎐 Energy
I think implementing solar panels is a must, especially considering the abundant sun California gets. This will work well with the goal of having shading systems throughout the complex.
💦 Water
I think a form or system which somewhat integrates water collection could be very useful and important, especially considering the sustainability goals of the project, as well as the drought/water shortages that we’ll be facing in the future. I’ll have to do more research to see what that entails, but for now, I think this can be broken down into three main categories:
- Water collection & storage
- Water refinement
- Water usage
Chances are there should be different “stepping stones” of budget, so the refinement systems are probably too expensive to implement first.
🌬 Air
Implementing a heat pump system will be vital to heat and cool the building in an economically and ecologically friendly way. I think it’s unrealistic not to expect climate management solutions to be implemented, so let’s make sure that they’re the best they can be.
This also includes a cohesive HVAC system.