Pasadena, Los Angeles, California
Designed to be the greenest building on Caltech’s campus, Mehrdad Yazdani’s new 80,000 sf Resnick Sustainability Resource Center will serve as the hub for energy and sustainability research and resource centers with expert staff and state-of-the-art equipment, including research into efficient solar fuels, smart electricity infrastructure, mitigation of climate change, and ways to improve soil fertility in a changing climate.
New teaching laboratories will be housed in the same building, allowing their undergraduate laboratory courses to seamlessly integrate with these cutting-edge research facilities.
Yazdani Studio’s 80,000-sf building, located on a very constrained site adjoining Beckman Lawn, will contain five levels, two below grade and three above.
The passageway can be closed at both ends with glass shutters to host indoor/outdoor events.
The building envelope is conceived as an undulating glass scrim, using fritted low-E glazing and integral shading fins to minimize glare and achieve optimal energy performance.
The transparency reveals the internal research activities, including large-scale experiments supported by a gantry crane, to spark the curiosity of passersby and illuminate the mission of the center.
The core of the building, containing labs and classrooms, is a concrete frame to dampen vibration while a public atrium at the north is constructed of cross-laminated timber for visual and textural warmth, as well as sustainability
Project: The Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech
Architects: Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign
Lead Architect: Mehrdad Yazdani
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps
Client: Caltech
Photographers: Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign
