Miller Hull’s New Cutting-Edge UCSD Engineering Building Seeks LEED Silver

The sustainable innovation leaders of <a href="http://www.millerhull.com">Miller Hull Partnership</a>, in association with San Diego-based <a href="http://www.safdierabines.com/">Safdie Rabines</a>, have designed a new 165,000-square-foot engineering building at the center of the University of California, San Diego campus. The new building houses the departments of structural engineering and nano engineering for the Jacobs School of Engineering. The building also provides space for visual arts students and medical device researchers. This addition to the campus will provide years of innovation and experimentation in a building constructed from LEED building principles.

The straight portion of the building is split from the curved by a unique elevated bridge. The bridge exits the second level onto a landscaped hill, which serves as a communal outdoor area. This area literally is the expansion and blurring of the Pepper Canyon environment right into the entrance of the building.

Dean Frieder Seible of the Jacobs School of Engineering instilled in the design team that this building should speak to the Bauhaus movement, “which brought art, technology and craftsmanship together and created modern architecture”.

The second floor becomes a "piano nobile" through the use of the bridge, and gives a unique ground floor experience to both the first and second floors of this building.

The spaces within the building that are meant for this Bauhaus-like collaboration bring all the building’s students together in a woven cross pollination of educational departments. These spaces also contain intimate views of the natural surroundings of Pepper Canyon, which help contribute inspiration to the collaboration.

The overlay of circulations within the building and the surrounding exterior provides for a very dynamic grouping of communal activities.

The design of the facility includes offices, wonderful high-bay testing areas, digital imaging computer labs, long term testing spaces, and large workshops.

This anticipated LEED Silver research facility provides UCSD with a space and capacity to research nano-tube technologies and new structural aerospace materials.

Miller Hull and Safdie Rabines provided an in-depth daylighting analysis of the building in order to provide these laboratory spaces with as much natural light as possible. Their analysis also took into account the placement of sun shading in order to minimize the use of air conditioning. The exterior blind system also helps with this task through the use of a solar clock, which automatically protects the interior from intense, direct sunlight and direct heat gain.

The communal circulation areas, such as the stairwell, provide for an area based upon collaboration. These areas are open to the exterior in order to reduce the mechanical load of the building. San Diego weather is perfect for including areas like this in buildings.

The building’s immense use of concrete in its structure also helps to keep the building cool during the day. The design team looked at the regional use of concrete in building such famed facilities, such as the Salk Institute, and saw the concrete as a sustainable, local material that could help reduce the life-cycle cost of the building.

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This gathering of students, faculty, and visitors is a perfect example of the wide range of activities that can take place in the communal areas of this building.

The spaces within the building that are meant for this Bauhaus-like collaboration bring all the building’s students together in a woven cross pollination of educational departments.