Rensselaer and SOM launch the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology

CASE researchers are currently developing a more efficient way to harness wind power to yield greater energy generation

Laurel Petriello -- Interior Design, 11/24/2008

Rendering of the integrated concentrating solor facade developed by CASE director Anna Dyson.

On the heels of Greenbuild 2008, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, officially launched the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE). Recognizing that the global building sector accounts for 35 percent of the world’s energy consumption and close to 40 percent of its carbon production, CASE aims to tap into a new generation of building design industry students and professionals to evolve current building practices and generate solutions for today’s environmental challenges.

The school, which has been operating for approximately a year, resides within SOM’s New York office in Manhattan, housing roughly 15 masters and doctoral students working alongside building professionals and researchers to provide alternative methods for challenges currently facing the building industry.

Rendering of the integrated concentrating solor facade developed by CASE director Anna Dyson.

“Through the development of innovative systems and materials that will shift building performance toward sustainable and energy self-sufficient models, researchers at the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology will demonstrate to the world the power that lies at the nexus of art, design, science, and technology,” said Rensselaer president Shirley Ann Jackson. “Two leaders with long histories of innovation in their fields—Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—will work together to create ecologically sustainable design through cutting-edge technological experimentation and architectural work.”

CASE researchers are currently working to develop a more efficient way to harness wind power atop aerodynamically shaped buildings to yield greater energy generation; a smart solar technology for windows; and an architectural method to aid in the conservation of potable and non-potable water in the world’s dry climate regions.