PHOTOS: Phillip Handforth, Marc Goodwin, Suneesh Sudhakaran, Jason O'Rear
Terra ? The Sustainability Pavilion, aims to illuminate the ingenuity and possibility of architecture for future sustainable living. Drawing inspiration from complex natural processes, the dynamic form of the pavilion is capturing energy from sunlight and fresh water from humid air. The relationship of building to site and its physical and cultural context is critical, as the facility demonstrates a new way of living sustainably in a challenging desert environment.
The pavilion structure works in tandem with the considered landscape of demonstration gardens, winding pathways, and shaded enclaves to create an aura of magic punctuated by the sights, smells, and tactile opportunities of nature. The gardens are both experiential and functional, setting the stage for the exhibition contents within and creating shaded gathering areas that manage and distribute crowds while providing retail, food, and beverage opportunities.
To achieve net-zero, the design required a series of technologies, building systems, and design solutions to act in unison. This self-contained, micro-ecosystem resulted from a combination of strategies: optimizing the natural conditions inherent in its location, working with and within them to maximize efficiency, and supplementing them with pioneering sustainable technologies to create innovative solutions.
The design is driven by maximizing efficiency, which it does by seeking shade below the ground. The Pavilion uses the insulating properties of the earth to shield it from the harsh ambient temperatures which can soar to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in the warmer months. Most of the accommodation is below grade and cased with an earth roof system. The above-ground surfaces are clad with a gabion rainscreen wall ? sourced with local stone from the Hajar Mountains ? which provides enough thermal mass to absorb the heat while the stone’s natural color reflects the sun.
Soaring over the courtyard, the pavilion’s canopy accommodates more than 64,500 square feet of ultra-efficient monocrystalline photovoltaic cells embedded in glass panels. The combination of the cell and the glass casing allows the building to harness solar energy while providing shade and daylight to the visitors. The canopy also serves as a large collection area for stormwater and dew that replenishes the building’s water system. The culmination of the building’s systems can be found in its large exterior courtyard. During the design, thermodynamic studies charting the prevailing breezes were used to shape the courtyard to allow cool south-westerly breezes to enter while blocking warmer winds.
The Sustainability Pavilion is complemented by an installation of Energy Trees. Ranging from 50 to 60 feet in diameter, 19 “E-Trees” are dispersed throughout the site and provide 28 percent of the energy required to power the building. Inspired by the Dragon’s Blood, a tree found only on the island of Socotra, the E-Tree is designed to be a deployable freestanding shade structure that harvests the sun’s energy. Taking further cues from nature, the array follows the sun, rotating 180 degrees throughout the course of the day to maximize the energy yield before returning to its original position at night.
