COLORADO SPRINGS SD20 - INSCRIPTIONS K-8 ECO SCHOOL

Black Forest Preserve, Colorado Springs, USA (in progress - pending real estate acquisition)

Design Principles: The School is inscribed into the site relative to it’s program and setting, and is organized into three zones according to curriculum and curriculum delivery method:

LandForm Mass = support services (A)

BioForm Mass = Arts+Sciences+Media (B)

Bridge Structures = core learning studios (C)

The initial organization intuitively follows the topography, eventually winding down the gentle topography.  This organization creates a pathway that encircles a large outdoor teaching space, acting as the heart of the campus.  

Construction:  The LandForm and BioForm Masses are constructed of integrally-insulated pre-cast concrete and SIP panel/TPO roofing systems, often used as retaining walls.  Retaining wall buttresses are enlarged to hold mechanical rooms.

The Bridge Structures are pre-constructed, moment-joint steel ‘pedestrian bridge’ shipped to the site and installed in-situ.  These include a 4’ mechanical chase below floor level, which holds all systems.  Roofs are of SIP panels with TPO membranes.  Aluminum glazing systems are ‘in-board’ installed, inside the structural frame.  Steel sun shades and rain-screen phenalic panels shade all glazing. 

A steel canopy provides support for 235kW PV system, fed back to the grid.  Ironically, the canopy’s greatest energy-saving characteristic is in shading the classroom structures.

Sustainable Tangibles:

Lower initial construction cost:  primarily from employing ‘component design’ techniques - the use of pre-manufactured, high-tech, highly-coordinated components that focus on ‘assembly’ on site rather than on ‘construction’.  based upon current test models, saves 12%-18% of overall construction cost through various means, ‘component design’ being the primary driver.

Lower long-term maintenance cost:  steel, aluminum, glass, concrete, phenalic panels, insulated metal panels. 

Lower energy consumption:  a combinatory product of the following:

• product of low-consumption appliances and fixtures, high insulation factors from ‘intelligent materials’ such as SIPS, insulated metal panels, and high-performance glazing.
• self-shading principles:  through both products (phenolic rain-screen applications, sun shading fins, etc), and building orientation.  extensive modeling was used to place building masses relative to both landscape and sun position at this elevation and location.  it’s noted that the sun sets behind Pikes Peak at 3:26-4:52 PM for half the year, and during this same time frame, does not strike the building in the AM till class has already begun.
• chimney effect:  because of the nature of the semi-arid climate of the Pikes Peak Region, the building is able to be cooled with natural air for much of the afternoon, and all evening, even during summer months.  the building’s orientation and configuration work towards venting of accumulated hot air, thus reducing AC need.

Lower Construction Waste:  by pre-manufacturing of a majority of the major building components and detailing to accommodate rapid placement, job-site waste is anticipated to reduce by 41%.

Lower Construction Time:  anticipated reduction of construction time from 12 months to 9.5 months.  

Less Footprint/Less Land Needed/Less Land Disturbance:  compact design coupled with less foundation results in less footprint, less land required, and less disturbance (and less construction cost).

Flexible Floor Plates - interior changes:  because of Narrow Floor-Plate construction (specifically provided by the ‘Bridge’ classroom wings), there is a lack of load-bearing interior walls.  this increases flexibility.

Flexible Floor Plans- mechanical:  ‘Bridge’ classroom structures have a 4’ mechanical space below the floor for all mechanical and technologies.  All are readily accessible without disturbing instruction.

Better Emergency Event Strategy:  rather than relying on systems, the architecture itself provides the mechanism for proper event-strategy planning through:

• purchase of time:  single entrance and, primarily, bulk of population is above grade and takes time to access.
• safety harbors:  classrooms have masonry ‘storage’ rooms that act as safety harbors

Sustainable Intangibles:  There is a constant emphasis on Emerson’s thought, that ‘to know nature is to know oneself”.  The natural world, not the man-made, is predominant.  

• de-emphasis of man-made interior world - all paths end at outdoor spaces rather than encapsulated interior spaces;
• though self-shaded, instructional spaces are primarily glazed, open for sun-harvesting and views to the landscape. 
• raised off the ground and in the tree canopy of surrounding forest (trees not shown for clarity).
• the ‘heart’ of the building is an outdoor community space, and one that ‘leaks’ to the outdoors rather than encapsulating and isolating.
• from the interior spaces, there is a constant erasure of architecture, and an emphasis on reinforcing the notion that we are an integral, rather than separate, part of the Natural world.