Energy efficiency on the schedule, Cornell Tech
An educational setting with a clear focus on sustainability
Cornell Tech, located on Roosevelt Island in New York City, is a melting pot of technology, engineering, creativity and innovation. It is also a place where ambitious targets for a minimised carbon footprint, energy-efficiency and good indoor climate encompassed the vision, design and construction of the school buildings.
In the fall of 2017, the three first buildings of the new campus were completed. About 30 professors and 300 students were fortunate to start the semester in an educational setting with a clear focus on sustainability, this both in regards to the building operation and the people inside the building.
Image above and below: Edmund Kwong, Morphosis Architects
Saving energy through a good indoor climate
We know that the indoor climate affects productivity, the ability to think strategically and the overall well-being of occupants. Hence, it is extremely important to strive for a good indoor climate in schools. However, it is a complex task to deliver a quality indoor climate as noise disturbance has to be minimised, air quality has to be ensured, comfortable temperatures and healthy levels of relative humidity as well. All of these, and even more, add up to what we refer to as indoor environmental quality (IEQ).
Taking noticable steps to create healthy and comfortable indoor environments almost inevitably leads to significant improvements in energy efficiency as well. However, school facilities are often utilised as little as 30% of the day, further improvements in energy use can easily be made with a demand-controlled indoor climate system, like our Swegon WISE.
Read our blog about IEQ
A solution for today and tomorrow
Experts at Swegon worked with specifiers during the project‘s early phases to design an indoor environment that would be comfortable to learn in and also meet the building’s energy-efficiency targets.
Swegon PACIFIC chilled beams, equipped with Coanda wings, were chosen to provide heating, cooling and supply air perfectly tailored to the premises. Aside from their capabilities to reach a netzero energy performance of the building, chilled beams also have the built-in flexibility to meet the demands on the indoor climate, of today as well as tomorrow.
See our Swegon chilled beams
Products and further reading
White paper: Education and indoor climate
Air quality and ventilation in schools is often an underestimated element of the classroom. It can have a huge impact on the way students feel and perform.