São Paulo, Brazil
“The center afforded us the opportunity of designing an enlightened space for learning and research, one where interactive exchange and a strong connection to nature could foster the next generations of medical leaders.” – Moshe Safdie, architect, founder of Safdie Architects.
Located in São Paulo, the Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC), designed by Safdie Architects and landscape architect Isabel Duprat, is an exemplary development, created for the premier Brazilian healthcare institute Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein, developed around a vaulted, skylight atrium garden with top-notch medical research laboratories, communal spaces, and clinical research resources.
The AEERC is the first medical school to be established by a private hospital in Brazil, it is envisioned as a landmark learning and research environment.
The architects designed the research center around 1 3,800-square-meter glass roof with three integrated structural domes, which act as a grid-shell to efficiently vault 86m with minimum structural steel weight.
The roof is designed as an assembly of layers that filter sunlight, mitigate heat, and absorb sound.
The outer skylight is made up of 1,854 ultra-transparent glass panels, coated with triple-silver solar protection to reduce heat gain, and printed with a pattern of translucent ceramic dots to shade sunlight.
The glass has minimal reflectivity to avoid disturbing exterior reflections.
The inner layer of the roof is a micro-perforated, transparent membrane to absorb noise and printed with a custom pattern of translucent dots that provide shading, but also glow in the light.
The increasing density of dots towards the East and West ends shades low-angle sun, while the central dome is entirely clear, allowing full sunlight to reach the denser planting in the center garden.
As seen from the ground level, the overlapping layers of dots are like seeing dappled sunlight through the overlapping leaves of a tree, evoking the feeling of being under a tree canopy.
A continuous full-height glass façade gives extensive daylight to both labs and classrooms.
The enclosure is designed such that alternating floors are either shaded by deep overhangs or screened by brises Soleil to control daylight and glare while preserving views of the neighborhood.
The airfoil shape of the louvers, as well as their angle and spacing, was developed using computer sun studies and tested with full-scale physical models.
The louvers are oriented either diagonally or horizontally, depending on the orientation of each façade to the path of the sun.
Interior operable solar shades and black-out shades allow for flexible daylight control.
The garden is the heart of the project’s learning, collaboration, and community spaces.
A sophisticated environmental control system works to maintain a comfortable and healthy building environment, key to the sustainability goals of the project.
The mechanical system was engineered to deliver cooling to the atrium only where required, at low level and at low velocity, to maximize comfort, control humidity, and minimize energy usage.
The environment was also designed to balance humidity levels in the building, provide comfort, support plant needs, and also control humidity to meet strict laboratory environmental requirements.
Extensive fluid dynamic computer simulations were used to model the stratification of heat in the voluminous space, and to simulate the evacuation of smoke in the event of a fire.
It is planted with a variety of native species of trees and understory plantings. The terraced planters reinforce the curving geometry of the atrium, appearing as if carved from the earth.
Before the transplanting process, many of the tree species were acclimatized during a two-year period in a nursery outside of São Paulo, which simulated the light conditions within the atrium.
The planting is designed to spread from the atrium towards the street, with a grove of bamboo extending to the North, and a grove of palm trees to the South.
The layering of trees and planting creates a variety of spaces, from the social amphitheater and exhibition space to quiet intimate spaces lined with seating around a small fountain.
Several locally-sourced species of wood are used in the project, including Jequitiba and Jatobá wood for the library and Cedro Rosso for the auditorium.
The Imbuia wood used to clad the elevator cores and for custom doors was hand selected from previously harvested lots.
Natural rubber flooring is used in the classrooms and labs, in five colors ranging from terracotta red to egg yolk yellow, one color per floor, to define a different character on each floor and help provide orientation.
The Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC) will be inaugurated in August 2022 and will become Latin America’s most advanced institution for medical research and study.
Project: Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC)
Architects: Safdie Architects, LLC.
Lead Architect: Moshe Safdie
Landscape Architects: Isabel Duprat Arquitetura Paisagistica
Lighting Designers: Studio Ix and LAM PARTNERS
General Contractor: Racional Engenharia
Client: Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein
Photographers: Timothy Hursley and Pedro Kok
