Professor Jennifer Akerman | Integration Design Studio | Fall 2011

The intent of this project was to design an office building for downtown Knoxville that would use passive techniques to aid in energy efficiency.  With a LEED Gold certification, the office building uses a copper mesh screen to shade the façades of the building from the  sun. Overall, the building has a small footprint that takes up less than fifty percent of the site.  The building is designed as two volumes, one housing the primary workspace and the second housing the secondary workspace, with a bridge connecting the two. This design allows for half of the building space to be “shut off”. Ground level retail spaces engage the surrounding pedestrian heavy streets while also defining a public green space which follows a natural pedestrian shortcut through the block.