Granoff Center for Creative Arts, Brown University

Atelier Ten worked with the design team, starting from the competition phase, to balance this building’s environmental performance with its complex program requirements for interactive art production spaces, recording studios, screening rooms, theaters, and gallery spaces. The resulting spaces achieve an economy of program, through dynamic shifted planes and flexible, multi-use spaces.

In order to achieve Brown’s ambitious environmental standards for campus buildings, the design’s optimization starts with the integration of a high-performance facade and mechanical systems. The west façade features an automated exterior shading system which maximizes solar heat gain in winter but minimizes it during summer, as well as providing daylight control, and allowing a public peek into the creative happenings inside. Displacement ventilation and demand control ventilation reduce cooling energy. Lighting and thermal controls allow occupants to create and adjust the comfort of the indoor environment to respond to programmatic flux. Water use is reduced by over 40% through low-flow fixtures and an attractive green roof.