1780 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
The Environmental Charter School promises to “foster knowledge, love of and respect for the environment and the will to preserve it for future generations.” Through its innovative design for deconstruction, prefabricated timber strategy and overall passive energy focus, the building intends to foster long-term environmental respect. The opportunity to innovate with timber not only pushes the timber industry forward but also allows for the children and the city of Pittsburgh to believe and participate in a more sustainable future. Exposing the structure to the neighborhood and using the open space to articulate visual and physical relationships expresses the honesty of the building. An understanding of how the structure being exposed can begin to integrate into a system and become a poetic flow of integrated structure and systems ties the building together.
Encouraging engagement and spurring curiosity, the program, structure and systems try to avoid a sense of spasticity and push concurrently to create a constant sense of movement. The series of interior atriums flow upwards opening up onto each other, suggesting a constant sense of dynamism. The primary structure is constantly pivoting and shifting upwards in altered directions. In a push to promote progressive educational strategies, the curriculum is designed to highlight student growth through three streams: knowing, doing, and being.
Professor Steve Lee with Jeffrey Davis
How can a building envelope represent the goals of an Environmental Charter School?
