


Designing a great cultural and scientific institution in San Francisco, a city with a strong collective vocation for the environment, also meant finding a language that expressed this shared vision of the present in an immediate way. Through the evocative spaces of the Museum of Natural History, the large green roof that breathes and the successful coexistence of outreach activities and research, the new headquarters of the California Academy of Sciences wanted, using architecture, to convey their passion for knowledge of nature and the fact that the earth is fragile.The California Academy of Sciences was
founded in San Francisco in 1853. It is one of the most prestigious
institutions in the US, and one of the few institutes of natural sciences in
which public experience and scientific research occur at the same location.
Following the widespread destruction of
the Academy buildings by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, a consultation for
this new building was held. Today’s Academy sits on the Golden Gate Park site
of its predecessor, which was comprised of 11 buildings built between 1916 and
1976 and grouped around a central courtyard. Of these buildings, three have
been conserved within the new project: the African Hall, the North American
Hall and the Steinhart Aquarium. The new building has maintained the same
position and orientation as the original; all the functions laid out around a
central courtyard, which acts as entrance lobby and pivotal centre to the
collections. This connection point is covered by a concave glass canopy with a
reticular structure reminiscent of a spider’s web, open at the centre.
Combining exhibition space, education,
conservation and research beneath one roof, the Academy also comprises natural
history museum, aquarium and planetarium. The varied shapes of these different
elements are expressed in the building’s roofline, which follows the form of
its components. The entire 37.000 sq. m complex is like a piece of the park
that has been cut away and lifted 10 m up above the ground. This “living roof”
is covered with 1,700,000 selected autochthonous plants planted in specially
conceived biodegradable coconut-fibre containers. The roof is flat at its
perimeter and, like a natural landscape, becomes increasingly undulating as it
moves away from the edge to form a series of domes of various sizes rising up
from the roof plane. The two main domes cover the planetarium and rain forest
exhibitions. The domes are speckled with a pattern of skylights automated to
open and close for ventilation.
The soil’s moisture, combined with the
phenomenon of thermal inertia, cools the inside of the museum significantly,
thus avoiding the need for air-conditioning in the ground-floor public areas
and the research offices along the facade.
Photovoltaic cells are contained between
the two glass panels that form the transparent canopy around the perimeter of
the green roof; they provide more than 5% of the electricity required by the
museum. The choice of materials, recycling, the positioning of the spaces with
respect to the natural lighting, natural ventilation, water usage, rainwater
recovery and energy production: all of these design issues became an integral
part of the project itself, and helped the museum obtain LEED platinum
certification.
Academia de Ciencias da California
Arquiteto Renzo Piano e equipe
Projeto e construção: 2000/2008
Clocal: São Francisco - California - Estados Unidos
Site do arquiteto: