By David R. Macaulay
Deep in the Missouri woods outside of metropolitan St. Louis resides a special place for learning—fed by rainwater, powered by sunlight, rich in native materials, and carefully integrated into the surrounding habitat. When Washington University’s Tyson Research Center first considered adding a new building to its environmental research station, the administrators became intrigued with the idea of living buildings: architecture adapted to place and inspired by nature, with a building’s production and consumption of energy-and-water in perfect balance.
The Tyson Research Center property offered an ideal, diverse setting in which to merge biology and the built environment within 2,000 acres of hilly mixed-hardwood forest, with prairies and ponds In 2009, university administrators, Tyson leadership, and the design team from Hellmuth+Bicknese Architects struck out to create a new facility providing much-needed space for faculty and graduate research in environmental biology and sustainability. READ MORE >>