Project: Storage Barn
Architect: Gray Organschi Architecture, New Heaven, Connecticut
Source: Details, Technology, and Form by Christine Killory and Rene Davids. Ed. AsBuilt
Workshop + storage. 12,000 SF
Structure: tubular-steel space frame
Considerations: Wetlands conservation regulations limited the amount of the building’s footprint to minimize interference with the local watershed. Such regulations dictated needed parameters and inspired the design of the project. The building consolidates pallets of stones, stockpiles of sand, wood, soil, mulch and uses it to manifest the exterior facade. The reduction of the building footprint, in due part to avoid the needed spatial maneuverability of a typical fork lift, allowed the architects to take the typical storage/barn typology interior functions to the exterior of the building acquiring infinite modes of cladding configurations.
Synthesized features:
Design constraints were integral part interior/exterior functions and innovated logistics thinking.Energy efficiency storage rack (ext.), flex racking system
· Building exterior composed of nearby available supplies with an interior double layer of polycarbonate sheets allowing different interior lighting conditions as stockpiles are removed from the facade.
· Heated + cooled by a geothermal system using borehole heat exchangers (collecting and dissipating heat from 400 feet beneath the surface)
· Roof top array of translucent photovoltaic powers: heat pumps supply electricity for lighting and tools.
· Building produces more electricity than it consumes allowing building owner to sell surplus electricity back to the regional utility company.
Material Strategies 