WINNER
by
Linda
Hales
A large, multidisciplinary team of architects and engineers
envisions a zero-energy future for our federal government.
The proposed energy retrofit of a Los Angeles federal
building reads like a sci-fi script from Hollywood: a conventional glass-and-concrete office block of the Mad Men era
is transformed into a living, breathing “bioreactor” powered
by tubes of energy-generating algae, which feed on pollution
from cars traveling on the nearby Santa Ana Freeway. Here’s
the plot twist: in the closing scene, people would be running
to, not from, the aging modernist behemoth. In this architectural saga, a forward-looking design promises to give the old
building new life as a healthy, fully empowered, and strikingly beautiful example of sustainability.
This innovative approach to net-zero energy, called
“Process Zero: Retrofit Resolution,” has won the 2011
Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition. Developed
in partnership with the General Services Administration,
this year’s brief was both ambitious and straightforward:
bring a typical, energy-guzzling 1960s federal building—
an eight-story structure in downtown L.A.—to a net-zero
energy standard.
The eighth-annual competition is a showcase of fresh
thinking from designers with a decade or less of professional
experience. The winning design team continued on page 103
Building photo, courtesy Andrew Bywater
