Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium
48 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Audience: Open to the public

 

Description

The Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC) retrofitted its headquarters, a pre-1940s house in Cambridge, MA, into a first-of-its-kind test case to demonstrate unprecedented levels of building efficiency and promote substantial shifts in the design and operation of existing buildings. Dubbed “HouseZero,” the project aims to prove that ultra-efficient retrofits can, indeed, be achieved and replicated by coupling current technologies with better design.

All components of HouseZero are highly-sensored to generate data that will allow the building to adjust and reconfigure itself. This data will fuel future CGBC research involving simulated environments and the development of new systems and algorithms that can help to answer pressing questions involving energy efficiency, health and sustainability.

Scheduled to coincide with the completion of the retrofit, the Harvard HouseZero Typology Symposium will gather GSD faculty members to discuss the building’s typology. Presentations will discuss design, technologies, historical issues and more—resulting in a diverse range of observations that illustrate the complexity involved in realizing an ultra-efficient retrofit and determining scalability. The program will conclude with a panel discussion.

 

Presenters

Ali Malkawi, Professor of Architectural Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Founding Director, Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities

K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Preston Scott Cohen, Gerald M. McCue Professor in Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Antoine Picon, G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Erika Naginski, Professor of Architectural History, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Stephen Gray, Assistant Professor of Urban Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Gary R. Hilderbrand, Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

 

Moderator

Grace La, Professor of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design