Project 09 Los Angeles, 2025

The Green Labs

Type School Expansion
Site SCI-Arc, Arts District
Class Environmental Systems II
Work Group project
Target LEED Platinum, 96 / 110
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Overview

An expansion for SCI-Arc built around a single move: one shaft cut through the middle of the plan, sized so that air accelerates as it narrows. That shaft ventilates the building and lights it.

Brief
School addition focused on materials, energy and water
Ventilation
Passive, driven by the Venturi effect through a central tunnel
Daylight
The same shaft as a light funnel to the deep core
Envelope
Climate-responsive bamboo façade, perforated metal mesh
Structure
Thermal-mass concrete, translucent bamboo atrium panels
Certification
LEED Platinum target, 96 of 110 points

Site

Where
It Sits

The expansion takes the wedge of land alongside SCI-Arc, the block held between East 4th Street and East 4th Place, highlighted here. It is a long, narrow, deep site pinned against the quarter-mile former freight depot, and that shape is what makes a central shaft the obvious move: every floor runs deep and far from a window.

34.0453° N, 118.2352° W Drag to pan, scroll to zoom © OpenStreetMap contributors

Natural Ventilation

A Building
That Breathes

The section is shaped to make air move without a fan. Wind striking the building is forced into a shaft that narrows through the middle of the plan; as the section constricts, velocity rises and pressure drops, and that low-pressure throat pulls air out of every floor it passes. Turbulence zones form off both ends of the mass, and the pressure difference between them and the throat is what keeps the whole section moving.

Section, high velocity and low pressure vacuums air from each floor. Traces coloured by air speed Fig. 01

Daylighting

The Same Shaft,
Doing Two Jobs

The tunnel that accelerates the air is also the only way daylight reaches the middle of a deep plan. The wide opening at the top collects zenithal light, the narrowing walls act as reflectors and carry it down past the levels exterior windows cannot reach, and diffused light spreads outward from the spine so circulation and inner rooms are lit without fixtures.

Daylighting study: the central wind tunnel as a vertical light well, with diffused daylight zones radiating from the spine
Daylight distribution through the section, showing light reaching the lower levels
"While the Venturi effect refers to the acceleration of airflow through the constricted throat of the tunnel, this same geometry functions as a giant light funnel."

Climate

Sun,
Measured

Sun path and radiation were run month by month to size the shading and set the façade depth. The results drove where glazing could open and where the envelope had to close down.

The same analysis established that passive ventilation and shading alone could carry a large share of the comfort hours, which is what makes the central shaft worth building.

June sun path and radiation analysis

Material Systems

Climate-Responsive
Envelope

A bamboo façade tuned to orientation, thermal-mass concrete holding the daily temperature swing, translucent bamboo atrium panels bringing filtered light into the shaft, and a perforated metal mesh outer layer moderating solar gain without closing the building off.

Climate-responsive material strategy: bamboo façade, thermal-mass concrete, translucent bamboo atrium panels, perforated metal mesh
Façade study

Systems

Air, Water,
Structure

HVAC supply riser sizing and design airflow assumptions

Riser sizing and design airflow, for the hours passive ventilation cannot cover.

Roof and plumbing: rainwater collection and reuse

Roof collection and greywater reuse, one of the three sustainability targets in the brief.

Primary and secondary structural frame

Primary and secondary frame, kept clear of the shaft so the section stays open.

Building occupancy and program area, circulation

Occupancy and circulation, setting where the shaft could pass through.

Interior, timber structure and daylight from the central shaft Fig. 02

Interior

Inside
The Shaft

What the section produces at eye level. Exposed concrete soffits and ducting left visible, bamboo mesh screens filtering the low western sun, and studio floors that run deep but stay lit from the spine rather than the perimeter.

Interior render: circulation spine beside the studios, with the timber stair overhead, exposed ducting and bamboo mesh screens

Circulation along the spine, the stair passing overhead.

Interior render: open drafting studio with trestle desks, exposed services and bamboo mesh cladding at the windows

The drafting floor, lit across its depth without fixtures.

Performance

96 of 110

Scored against LEED across location and transportation, sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation. The set targets Platinum at 96 points.

LEED scorecard, 96 of 110 points, Platinum
Environmental Systems II Passive Ventilation Daylighting LEED Group Project

A group project. My work was the interior: the Venturi-driven ventilation shaft and the daylighting that reuses the same geometry, the BIM model the set was drawn from, and much of the wider documentation.

Group

Sofia Smith, Mukai Li, Emanuele Di Paola, Jafar Alsayegh, Noble Nikkel, Santiago Saavedra Ortega.

Next Project

"Yovie"
Cultural Center

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