NASA’s new Sustainability Base will showcase the most advanced recycling and intelligent technologies originally developed to support its human and robotic space exploration missions, to make it the US government’s highest performing building.
The ceremonial groundbreaking on the AU$24.5 million building is set for 25 August and construction is expected to be completed in November 2011.
The project will have zero net energy consumption, reduce potable water consumption by over 90 per cent and significantly reduce maintenance costs when compared to an equivalent size building of conventional design.
Utilizing solar panels, fuel cells, water recycling systems, technology from NASA’s space exploration, the building will aim for a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum plus certification.
The building will intelligently monitor its own temperature, based on weather forecasts and local conditions. So if a cold breeze blows at night the windows will open to make the most of it. Heating and cooling will adjust to where people are in the building, by monitoring the electronic calendars of employees, and it will track each individual’s energy use and report back directly to their laptops.
“I decided that if we’re going to build an energy efficient building, why we don’t we build the most energy efficient building we can possibly build, in the spirit of what we need to do for this country,” Steve Zornetzer, associate center director at NASA Ames, said.
The new building at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, is designed by AECOM and William McDonough + Partners, with construction by Swinerton Inc.
Sustainability Base will be mainly used as an office building, but may also house some scientific research and engineering.
This news comes in the 40th anniversary year of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and humanity’s first historic steps onto the surface of another world. The name Sustainability Base is a homage to the original ‘Tranquility Base’, the name Neil Armstrong gave to the landing site on the moon.
The NASA program Renovation by Replacement is funding the building.
