RISD Nature Lab

LOCATION: Providence, RI

PROGRAM: Mixed-Use (Education + Living)

STATUS: Proposal

The Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design is a mixed use space housing the school’s extensive natural history collection, as well as visiting artist live and work spaces.

An iconic addition to the art school’s campus, this project is not only focused on beautifully displaying and cataloging nature, but is also a lesson on how to build in a way that is sensitive to the natural world from which we draw and collect.

While the rotation of the stacked boxes echoes the stacks of specimen boxes found inside the nature lab, this fractured massing also helps to mitigate urban heat island effects. The rooftop greenhouse includes integrated solar ponds for radiant water heating. The sunlight coming in through the greenhouse skylight provides light and heat for the entire building. CLT panel to panel framing reduces the carbon footprint of the build while also providing structural support.