Frontier Project / HMC Architects
The Frontier Project, located in Cucamonga, Southern California, is a 14,000 square foot demonstration building that will educate all in the community about the latest information, technologies and approaches regarding environmental friendliness. The project will make resident consumers, commercial builders, and sustainable advocates aware and informed of the alternative building methods to encourage sustainability. HMC Architects’ building will not just be something for visitors to look at and admire; rather, the building will become more of a learning experience as visitors are welcomed into its spaces and sustainable strategies are pointed out with their importance explained. “Everything from material and plant selection, the layout of space, and the maintenance regime will have a purpose, demonstrating the principle of green design for home owners, consumers, contractors, design professionals, sustainability advocates and the general public,” explained the Frontier Project founders.
More about the demonstration building, including a video and images, after the break.
Four concentric layers of building shells each have a different purpose: the outer shell, constructed of insulated concrete forms, acts as thermal mass protecting the building from the solar heat; the second shell is a cast in place concrete wall that provides lateral integrity to the building structure; the third shell, a mostly north facing glazed curtain-wall, maximizes diffused daylight and visual connection into the building; the inner shell, made of salvaged red wood from the local winery, shades the south facing wall of office/conference wing.
These four shells define the interior spaces. Such spaces are ”open and fluid to maximize spatial flexibility and interconnectivity for ventilation and daylight.” The exterior and interior spaces were both designed with the intent to constantly push the visitor onward in his journey of experiencing the building.
The project goes “beyond the norm of sustainable buildings as merely machines of green technologies by combining architectural and ecological design principals as equal forces in the formation of the building,” explained the architects. With plans to achieve a LEED Platinum Certificate, the building is designed to constantly educate visitors on the many options of sustainability. From the time the visitors enter the landscaped gardens at the ground level that show rain filtering strategies to the moment the visitors make their way to the roof to see numerous sustainable roofing stategies, the users are constantly being exposed to different environmentally friendly solutions.
THE FRONTIER PROJECT
Architect: HMC Architects
Location: Rancho Cucamonga, California
Client: Cucamonga Valley Water District/ The Frontier Project Foundation
Project Team:
Laurie McCoy AIA, Principal in Charge
Raymond Pan AIA, LEED AP, Design Principal
Pasqual Gutierrez AIA, Principal
Dexter Galang, Project Designer
Daniel Sandoval, Project Leader
The building’s form allows visitors to explore each of its parts, “from the composition of the energy efficient walls to the various roofing constructions”, in an attempt to provide as much information to the visitors as possible.
just amazing, people just use to blame the global warning, i think this is a great project
You can support this great project and be one of the first ones to see it by attending the “Green Tie Gala,” October 17, 2009. For ticket and sponsorship information, visit http://www.frontierproject.org or call 909.483.7484.
If this is where my stimulus money is going, then I’m going to be really, really mad…
I think this project could have existed more effectively as something other than a built environment. But even if I can be convinced of the importance of an experiential project, i still think it could have been done in a much more forceful, innovative, and interactive way. This is the product of a series of study models, not of a study revolving about the idea of a building that teaches, which is what it should have been, if it had to be built at all (but we can’t blame the architect for that i suppose).
@asdf:
Spare us your supposedly omnicient criticism! You propose no solutions except your conjecture that SOMETHING could be more “forceful, innovative and interactive.” If you say so, then I guess it must be true.
While not absolutely enamored by this project, I won’t pretend to explain its origins and future performance without being an expert on this project, all of its technologies and educational methodologies, which you apparently are. But if you are truly an authority on these subjects, should you not be making a better statement on your own through architecture than through curmudgeonly internet rants?
seems to be an interesting building. i would be grateful for a community resource similar to this.
Really amazing building – I love it!
Nice! love the simple gestures…
Great Design!
Is this project paid for by taxpayer/ratepayer dollars$
Great project.
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Wow! am going for a tour to this building and I can’t wait, i think this is the future of buildings..
Can anyone please give me some data on this building cause i am making a research on it in my college
2:26 PM Aug 27th
Frontier Project / HMC Architects:
The Frontier Project, located in Cucamonga, Southern Califo.. http://bit.ly/a2YRe
(Via @archdaily)