Innovation Center
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Fall, 2020
Integrated Studio
UC Berkeley
Instructor: Simon Schleicher
The innovation center is aiming at providing opportunities for different departments to collaborate on projects, research and learning and reactivate the space between different buildings, so that collaboration for CED (College of Environmental Design) students with other departments in the univiersity can be more accessible. The site, aside from being known as Piedmont parking lot, is located in a special location that it is surrounded by the back of several department buildings, with Bauer Wurster hall (current CED department hall) courtyard on its west. The building takes its footprint as an extension of the courtyard, and is located be- tween the Simons institute and the Archaeological research facility building.
Form, function, and structure affects each other, Three main functions of the building, fabrication, Research, Learning are organized into three main volumes that are connected with two cores on the diagonals of the building. And the way the volumes shift creates terraces on the south east of the building where it gets a lot of sunlight; and overhangs on the north west of the building, creating shades for material used in the shops that might be sensitive to direct sunlight. To emphasize the volumes, the main structure of the building is differentiated under the same logic. And structure shown here are covered with channel glass revealing the structure behind.
The building is accessible from all sides. The southwest core is fully covered with channel galss and is used as the main entrance and potential exhibition atrium. and the northeast concrete core is the service core. Going up, the middle floors are dedicated to research purposes and offices. Fan as- sisted natural ventilation is embedded in the floor. The top floor, covered with PV panels and operable skylight facing north is where the lecture hall and classrooms are.
Sustainability: 70% of the roof is covered by pv panels, and the other 30% is covered by wood decking.
