The School of Architecture & Environment is known for its commitment to civic responsibility, environmental sustainability and design, innovative education, and lauded students. The latest news from the 2024 American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), Top Ten Awards for Sustainable Design Excellence further reinforces the expertise and claims made by the historic school, as a former SAE student and current alumna captured one of the top ten student awards.
Sofia Gonzales, BArch '24, was selected as a winner for the 2024 COTE Top Ten for Students Competition, with Assistant Professor and Director of the Baker Lighting Lab Siobhan Rockcastle, Kelly Kottlowski (MArch '23) and Octavio Guttiérez (BRIC Architects) identified as the faculty sponsor and project collaborators, respectively. Gonzales's project rose to the top in the face of fierce competition from hundreds of project entries across ACSA’s member and affiliate schools in the US and abroad. Gonzales's winning project, titled Widely Accessible Vocational Education Center (WAVE), bases its idea on the symbolic nature of waves to represent the continuous and progressive nature of learning. Taking this concept and building on its foundation to deliberately create a space for students to engage and interact with their environment and each other, through new and novel ways.
"I wanted to design a project that would work on every scale, not just for the ideal situation," said Gonzales. "After hearing from the students at David Douglas [High School in Portland], their lack of inspiration from their current space was apparent. These students deserved a space to showcase their skills and inspire them to try new things."
WAVE was created to serve as a "bridge" between two disparate buildings on the campus of David Douglas. WAVE is about providing students with a comprehensively designed space where they can thrive in active, passive, and collaborative learning spaces while also engaging with the environment in new and unprecedented ways. WAVE would allow students to navigate the complex ebbs and flows of life while being able to learn in a way that is meaningful and fulfilling for the student's learning style and goals. The facility can account for these complexities thanks to its flexible form.
The flexibility is thanks to the use of modular forms in the construction and design of the facility, allowing for future adaptability and reconfiguration of spaces as educational needs evolve with minimal disruption to classes. Movable folding walls of windows or doors allow for classroom spaces to open into the hallways and become more dynamic for varying degrees of learning and different learning styles.
The facility is designed intentionally to work with the environment, not against it, with thermal mass concrete flooring collecting heat from solar exposure in the non-occupied hours to help reduce the cost of mechanical heating systems, natural daylighting that reduces the need for electric lighting while also increasing positive health outcomes for students, and the use of sustainable and locally source mass timber materials to ensure low environmental impact are all deliberate design touches that create not just a one-of-a-kind educational facility but a community asset that reinvigorates the local area.
"It's important to think about mass timber as a viable building option for education facilities as it allows for comprehensive and efficient use of carbon sinking materials," explained Gonzales. "Mass timber buildings allow for spaces to work on a specified grid, making expansion simple and straightforward."
“After consulting with experts from the TallWood Design Institute," said Rockcastle, "Sofia chose to integrate glue-laminated timber (GLT) trusses and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for a system of construction that leverages current and emerging low-carbon construction technologies in the Pacific Northwest”
The adjustable functionality of the building is also supported by the inclusion of dynamic, exterior features and sustainable design decisions. Local fauna and flora are introduced and supported to attract and sustain local wildlife; outdoor green spaces serve as an additional classroom, creating living laboratories rooted in the understanding and involvement of local ecosystems and wildlife; and rainwater capture gutters and downspouts maximize water catchment serving as an education tool for students to understand water collection and as a captured resource in water cisterns above and below ground. South-facing roofs allow the facility to capture energy throughout the day through a photovoltaic array. Combined with passive and energy-efficient active systems for heating and cooling, the building achieves a net-zero energy footprint.
WAVE's innovative design, collaborative environment, and sustainable focus ensure that the building will be a place of learning and a sanctuary for progressive growth everywhere the building touches, which resonated with the judges of this year's COTE awards. The top ten designation is a recognition of Gonzales's hard work in creating and planning the building and a reinforcement of the importance of including a greater-than-anthropomorphic viewpoint when designing future community assets.
“I am delighted for Sofia to be recognized for this inspiring project and for the University of Oregon to have a COTE Top Ten Student winner for the first time since 2019," exclaimed Rockcastle. "While WAVE is an innovative building that leans into technological solutions to achieve NET-ZERO status, it is also a thoughtful space for students of all backgrounds to learn and grow into future careers that support a green economy.”
The award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 awarded to the student and a $350 prize awarded to the faculty sponsor. COTE Top Ten award program was founded on the idea that sustainability and design excellence are two sides of the same coin. Now in its twenty-ninth year, the COTE Top Ten has become the industry's best-known award program and has recognized innovative projects from current SAE students and alumni with numerous awards, reinforcing SAE as one of the top schools for sustainability excellence.