International Architecture Awards Tell a friend
ARCHIVE 2025
International Architecture Awards
Architects: Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign
Lead Architect: Mehrdad Yazdani
Associate Architects: CannonDesign
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Client: California Institute of Technology
Photographers: Michael Moran
Essentially a makerspace for scientists, Caltech's Resnick Sustainability Center will be a dynamic hub for critical research into the most pressing climate and sustainability challenges we face.
The building will unite experts from across physical sciences, life sciences and engineering disciplines in shared spaces with access to unparalleled instrumentation to advance novel solutions that extend beyond any single discipline.
In line with the building's sustainability mission, a soaring, timber-framed atrium houses the center's social and collaborative spaces, and the swooping glass curtain wall flooding this multi-story space with natural light incorporates a mass timber grid shell.
In the building's core, key spaces include a biosphere engineering facility, a solar science and catalysis center, a remote sensing center, a translational science facility, teaching labs and lecture and interactive learning spaces.
Collectively, these design moves ensure the Sustainability Center is transparent in nature and puts “science on display,” helping spark the imagination of passerby.
“In many ways, Caltech is conducting an experiment that really hasn't been done in sustainability,” explained Jonas Peters, Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute. “We are building an institute that really tries to pull, essentially, all of the campus toward problems in sustainability. We need all hands on deck.”
A language of diagonal frits covering low-E coated glass curtain wall and its supporting mass timber in the facade contribute to the building's dynamic profile. The use of timber as a structural and aesthetic component also blends the atrium and walkways with a concrete shell core housing suites of research labs and academic spaces to make an elaborate yet wholly scientific composition from the inside out.
The building's mechanical systems will consume reduced amounts of energy compared to other lab buildings on campus, and condenser water from the cooling system will be recycled for use nearby. Interior finishes will all be low-VOC and prioritize rapidly renewable and low-embodied carbon materials.
Moreover, surrounding the building are 40-to-50 new carbon sequestering trees that will be planted along with native, drought-resistant flora. A covered ground-floor passageway will serve as a north-to-south pedestrian artery, and the building will face a major campus green space known as Beckman lawn.
The building won't just benefit graduate students and scientists coming together from varying disciplines and departments. The center's second floor will be populated by undergraduate classrooms and labs, and every freshman will have at least one class in the building.
"Bringing every Caltech students into the space puts an emphasis on how integral sustainability is to all of the areas of discipline they will encounter throughout their education at Caltech," explains Design Principal Mehrdad Yazdani.
The Resnick Sustainability center is poised to redefine what's possible with climate science and education. It will redefine boundaries and rewrite climate-focused curricula, all to save lives and preserve our natural planet.
