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Presenter: Ted Hyman, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
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Sustainable strategies overview, Venter Institute. All images courtesy of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF). |
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The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) was formed in October 2006 through the merger of several affiliated and legacy organizations, including The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and The Center for the Advancement of Genomics (TCAG). JCVI has become a single multidisciplinary genomic-focused organization, with more than 400 scientists and staff, and more than 250,000 ft2 of laboratory space at locations in Rockville, Md., and La Jolla, Calif.
The focus of JCVI's research includes five key areas:
- Genomic medicine (which began with the first sequencing of the human genome in 2000 by Dr. Venter and his colleagues, and provided a glimpse of humans at our most basic molecular level).
- Infectious disease (looking at microbial and viral genomics and how those relate to human infectious disease).
- Microbial and environmental genomics (by circumnavigation of the world's oceans as part of the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition, JCVI has uncovered more than six million new genes).
- Plant genomics (using cutting-edge technologies to examine the functions of plant genes to compare them to the genes of related species and to track the complex metabolic pathways through which plants convert energy to support life).
- Synthetic biology and bioengineering (using pioneering genomic science to explore new biologically driven sources of renewable energy).
From a programmatic perspective, the goal of the J. Craig Venter Institute was to provide space to house all aspects of the JCVI program with an emphasis on environmental genomics. The building needed to enhance collaboration of JCVI and their research partners at the University of California-San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Calit2, and the UCSD School of Medicine. The laboratories needed to functionally support current cutting-edge molecular and computational biology, and be sufficiently flexible to accommodate change over the life of the building.
In addition to providing the flexibility and adaptability to respond to changes in the research environment, JCVI had very high expectations in terms of sustainability goals. Dr. Venter’s intention was to construct the most sustainable laboratory building in the world, one that would use a minimum of 50% less energy, and would be carbon-neutral without "buying" carbon offsets or off-site generation of power.
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West courtyard view. |
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JCVI also had a strong commitment to water conservation and a goal of capturing 100% rainwater on site, as well as reducing domestic water demand by 50%. Superior interior environmental quality–both in the laboratory and office space–was to be provided utilizing passive and natural ventilation with sufficient daylight, so as to not require electric light during daylight hours.
In an effort to create an excitement for innovation by all of JCVI partners and peers, ZGF was charged with setting new benchmarks and creating a new paradigm for how laboratory buildings should be designed and built.
Early in the planning process, a definition was established regarding the parameters for a carbon-neutral building’s performance. Simply stated, the definition was that at the end of the year, JCVI would not get an electric bill, and the solution to use off-site generation or buying any kind of carbon offsets would not be acceptable. Initially the intention was to capture 100% of the rainwater on site with the goal of net zero wastewater. As the project progressed, it was discovered that the geotechnical condition of the site precluded any infiltration of rainwater into the ground. Hence, the building required a storm water retention system, which would allow capture for such things as landscape irrigation, toilet flushing, and PV array washing.
The site in La Jolla has an incredibly benign climate, which provided opportunities for using passive systems. That also encouraged the team to organize the building around the functional criteria of the program and to separate the highly serviced wet bench laboratories from the computational and office functions, thus allowing the selection of optimized systems that would meet the specific functional critical of each type of space.
We had the opportunity to analyze the connected loads and the actual energy demand in JCVI's existing laboratories in Rockville and in La Jolla. Rather than a conventional approach of establishing W/ft2 by space type and then applying "best guess" diversity factors, we measured the exact loads that JCVI was seeing in their existing laboratories, and then evaluated how they might be further reduced.
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Site overview, highlighting green roofs and PV arrays. |
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After "right sizing", the next biggest energy reduction measures involved the performance of the building envelope. Using a completely integrated approach, the envelope was thought of as part of the mechanical system, and the HVAC system as part of the architecture. The result is a building where envelope, lighting and engineering systems are all interrelated, and a change in the performance of one will affect the performance of all.
The ground floor is composed of a wing of computational laboratories and a wing of wet bench laboratories organized around a courtyard, with a building lobby as the indoor link between the two. A central courtyard, covered by the 32,000 ft2 of photovoltaic arrays, will provide space for "intellectual collisions." The rock garden is part of the water storage system that captures the rainwater and collects it in cisterns.
As part of a land lease agreement with the University of California, JCVI has agreed to provide on-site parking underneath the building. To accommodate the parking without requiring a high-energy demand, the garage is depressed 6 ft below grade with sufficient open area to keep it passively ventilated.
The office wing, housing computational biology, is a very flexible space with moveable furniture systems and a small percentage of enclosed offices. Because of the benign climate, operable windows will be sufficient ~80% of the year. Because of concerns that the sea air could corrode the computers quickly, a hybrid approach was taken. Offices have operable windows and they will be heated and cooled using a hydronic, chilled beam system.
The laboratory wing utilizes chilled beams throughout. Discussions with JCVI environmental safety staff the design team allowed a reduction in the required air change rate from six to four air changes based on the addition of an air monitoring system that would ramp up to as much as 30 air changes as needed. JCVI felt that this would provide a safer laboratory environment than either a conventional system VAV or constant volume system could provide.
The narrow section of both the laboratory and office wings and the envelope response to site orientation optimize the amount of natural daylight into the space while providing significant glare protection. The building is oriented east/west with very limited glazing on the east and west facades. The south façade has very deep overhangs and is a combination of windows into the open labs and solid walls where natural light into lab support spaces is unwanted. The north façade, which is office space, is a wood curtain wall system with integrated vertical fins to protect the interior from early morning and late afternoon sun in the summer.
The entire perimeter light is controlled with daylight sensors; offices have occupancy sensors, and the entire lighting system is part of a digital addressable lighting package that can be controlled from a PC and is connected to the building management software.
The second floor is dedicated to office space, including the director and senior staff offices, an archival library, and conference rooms. There are also a series of exterior spaces with views to the ocean that can be used as outdoor conference rooms.
The small size of the mechanical room on the second floor is indicative of the energy efficiency of the building; it is significantly smaller then what would be expected in a conventional laboratory building. Fresh air is drawn through the server to capture preheating when it is needed.
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The façade glows at dusk. |
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The third floor is devoted to conference and interaction spaces, which open out onto a large terrace with 270 degree view of the Pacific Ocean.
As we worked with JCVI during design, to push the building loads down, the researchers were inspired to find ways to also "green" their research. They have now reduced the types and quantities of the chemicals they are using. They also looked at alternative ways of storing samples and dramatically reduced the number of freezers they were going to need in the laboratories. As Craig Venter had hoped, the building has inspired scientists to think differently. Changing their process is only one of many impacts the building is having on its occupants, even before it opens.
At the end of the design process, we worked with the contractor to look for value engineering alternatives to manage the budget. There were some finishes that could be questioned, but when we looked at building systems it was clear that the design was optimized for performance. Any significant changes to the building envelop or HVAC system had significant impacts on the performance of energy and interior environmental quality. We also benchmarked the performance of the project against the database for some of Labs21 most energy-efficient projects with remarkable results. The building is on target to be LEED Platinum-certified.
Extensive building controls and monitoring were incorporated into the design, not only to improve performance but also to measure it to prove that it's working and to provide data that can be used by others in future buildings.
This is one of the most exciting projects I have ever worked on. It was not a building that we designed then the engineers tried to figure out how to make it work. It is the first one where design has been driven by building performance, both in terms of energy and in terms of lighting from start to finish.
