Global Lessons from Local Forests

Course Overview

Through the example of the Biomass Power Plant at Hotchkiss School this presentation highlights distinctive and sustainable infrastructure. This Biomass Power Plant was designed to do double duty as a living classroom. It exposes ecologically friendly technologies and sustainable construction materials to students and community groups through public tours. Attendees will see how an industrial building can also be beautiful and how sustainable and local materials can be incorporated into local infrastructure in ways that include and invite the community into the building and the operations of a Biomass facility.

Learning Objectives

  1. How wood structure can complement sustainable design.
  2. Appropriate uses for Glulam in the design of industrial and institutional construction.
  3. Conservation features under LEED that include: a renewable, laminated wood structural system; water-conserving plumbing fixtures; use of local materials with a high recycled content; an abundance of daylight inside; and highly efficient mechanical systems, lighting, and exterior skin.
  4. Infrastructure that connects and informs the local community and visitors, how the facility has become an integral part of the school’s commitment to becoming a carbon neutral campus by 2020.

Course Video

Speaker Bio

Alan D Paradis, RA, Leed AP
Associate
Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLP. – Connecticut, USA

Course Curriculum

Lessons