Living Buildings must minimize stormwater runoff. The Kendeda Building’s landscape mimics the Piedmont Forest’s hydrology through seepage areas, rain gardens, and permeable pavers, allowing most rainwater to absorb into the ground.
The Kendeda Building couples a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) with indoor carbon dioxide sensors that determine the amount of outside air that needs to be brought into the building. The system only brings in the amount of outside air that is required by occupants (CO2 being a good measure of occupancy because we exhale CO2). Indoor air is then exhausted in order to maintain a slightly positive pressure in the building.
The Kendeda Building focuses on pedestrian oriented mobility. The staircases are inviting and there is a centrally located ramp. The elevator is tucked away, out of site. This encourages physical activity by occupants.
To meet Living Building Challenge standards, The Kendeda Building must generate at least 105% of its annual electricity needs without on-site combustion.
The key to net positive energy is efficiency. Therefore, the design prioritized passive strategies like daylighting to reduce lighting loads, followed by efficient systems to lower energy demand—enabling a smaller solar array to meet the net positive goal.
The Living Building Challenge requires projects to offset embodied carbon from construction, but the goal is to minimize this carbon pollution in the first place.
The Net Positive Water Imperative requires, among other things, that all toilet waste must be treated on-site and managed either through reuse, a closed loop system, or infiltration. For toilet waste, the design team analyzed two options: a compost toilet system and a blackwater system.
