California College of the Arts Expansion

Sustainability is an intrinsic part of the CCA curriculum and is a main driver of the new unified campus. Atelier Ten identified the project’s primary energy demands and worked with the team to minimize these through integrated passive design and equipment efficiencies in the individual art studios.

One of the key characteristics of the project is the integration of indoor and outdoor space to create an active and vibrant campus year round. As a highly passive building, the majority of spaces within the new building have abundant access to daylight and natural ventilation. Courtyards create usable outdoor spaces which bring daylight and natural ventilation to the ground level studios. This design not only extends the spaces usable area and activates the courtyards, but also naturally ventilates the space to reduce energy loads.

Atelier Ten worked with the stakeholders and the design team to establish the ambitious goal of carbon neutrality. We studied the complex program and energy uses associated with the art production facilities and developed a highly passive design to minimize the overall energy demand. The building is predicted to use 27% less energy but when we combine this with maker space equipment optimizations, the building reduced its predicted energy demand by 50%.

Atelier Ten provided energy and greenhouse gas analysis to identify opportunities to reduce carbon emissions in the new and existing building. The team evaluated on-site renewable energy and energy storage potential to support the project’s goal of carbon neutrality. We also collaborated with microgrid operators, mechanical engineers, and controls providers to help develop the conceptual design of the new campus microgrid that will link the CCA academic campus, future rooftop solar PVs, battery storage, and controls. We evaluated the amount of PV needed to achieve net zero energy and quantified the carbon benefit from using the microgrid to strategically shift the timing of the project’s energy use.