The Kendeda Building is a multi-disciplinary, non-departmental education building. Rather than focus on one subject such as physics or ecology, the design team envisioned a building that welcomes the broadest cross section of students. The goal is to have as many students circulate through the building as possible so that they can be inspired by its regenerative design.
Our civilization's typical built environment is designed to treat natural occurrences as nuisances. For example, impervious surfaces turn rainfall, which can be beneficial, into stormwater that burdens infrastructure and often negatively impacts downstream communities.
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.