Weber Thompson’s Eco-Laboratory Wins 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition
“Living Building” Addresses Environmental and Community Concerns
SEATTLE – June 9, 2008 – Eco-Laboratory – a Weber Thompson-designed high-rise project that blends housing, urban gardens and a sustainability training center – won the 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition, hosted by The Cascadia Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. As the Cascadia winner, Eco-Laboratory will be entered into the competition at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Boston in November.
The design competition invited students and professionals working in the design field for less than five years to submit concepts for “living buildings” based on Cascadia’s program for sustainable design, which focuses on six “petals”: site, materials, energy, indoor quality, water, and beauty and inspiration.
Weber Thompson designers Brian Geller LEED AP, Myer Harrell LEED AP, Chris Dukehart and landscape designer Dan Albert LEED AP designed Eco-Laboratory to have cutting-edge sustainable features integrated with social components to benefit the community.
The theoretical project is located at the corner of Western Avenue and Vine Street in Seattle, adjacent to the historic Belltown Cottage Park and the Belltown P-Patch (a community garden). Eco-Laboratory fills the rest of the block with a residential building and an expanded garden. It also provides a new and expanded home for the Millionair Club, a charity currently located on the site that provides services for the working homeless.
Eco-Laboratory’s innovative sustainable features include a rainwater-collection system; a hydroponic garden to grow food for the community; a Living Machine to convert black water into greywater and potable water; harnessing wind, solar, biofuel and hydrogen to create a net-zero energy building; and earth tubes, which are underground ducts that funnel air cleaned by the P-Patch into the building.
Eco-Laboratory also mixes transitional housing units with market-rate housing. The project provides a hygiene station, job training, meals and basic shelter for Belltown’s working poor and homeless community, and an education center teaches the public about sustainability and urban agriculture. A public farmers’ market provides a much-needed amenity to the Belltown community.
The most innovative aspect of the building is its interconnected systems, which create a closed cycle so that the building and community are almost completely self-sustainable. For instance, food from the P-Patch and the hydroponic garden feeds the Millionair Club clients and is sold in the farmers’ market, and The Living Machine cleans greywater generated in some parts of Eco Laboratory for reuse in other areas of the development, such as the hydroponic garden. Methane, a byproduct of the Living Machine, runs the hydrogen fuel cell, which in turn is combined with other energy-generating systems to provide electricity to the building and to heat water.
About Weber Thompson
Weber Thompson was founded in 1987 as an architectural firm focused primarily on urban infill, mixed-use projects. Now with a staff of 84 professionals, the firm has since evolved into a highly diversified design agency with capabilities in four complementary design disciplines: Architecture, Interior Design, Community Design and Landscape Architecture. With special attention to its clients’ vision and the environment, as well as careful collaboration between client and design/construction teams, Weber Thompson’s primary objective is to design exceptional, sustainable projects that help its clients find success. For more information, visit www.weberthompson.com or contact Weber Thompson at (206) 344-5700 or info@weberthompson.com.