A team of students from the National University of Singapore and University of Melbourne have designed an eco-friendy university campus inspired by the design of mushrooms and the processes that occur within the same, and influenced by biophilic design. The campus was designed keeping its site location in mind, and simultaneously making use of the traditional Vietnamese construction techniques such as ramp earth and rice straw walls that are commonly used in Sapa, Vietnam. Earth-air tunnels, daylighting and rainwater have also been used with the intention of minimising the campus’ energy consumption.
The “Mushroom Community Campus”, as it’s popularly known, makes use of earth-air tunnels so as to reduce the need for air-conditioning, which in turn reduces the electricity consumption. It also uses special rainwater harvesting techniques for the primary reason of controlling water consumption. The two above mentioned features mimic naturally occuring systems such as a cluster of mushrooms in the wild.
The campus makes use of photovoltaic panels and solar water heating enabling the site to be almost completely self-sustainable and reducing its carbon footprint by more than 70%. Since, the campus serves as a vocational training and research institute focussing on forestry, environment, agriculture, energy-conservation and sustainability management, it will itself play a pivotal role in the future in developing eco-friendly processes and wonderful energy-conservation ideas.
The project was so impressive that it won 2013’s International Tropical Architecture Design Competition held alongside the annual International Green Building Conference in Singapore. Design team members Pham Huu Loc and Ng Pui Shan from the National University of Singapore and Hoang Van Anh from the University of Melbourne have taken a big step in revolutionising the Science of Biomimetics and clearly, have a bright future ahead of themselves.
References
Mushroom-inspired campus clinches top architecture prize for students. Retrieved from http://www.eco-business.com/news/mushroom-inspired-campus-clinches-top-architecture-prize-students/
Mushroom Community Campus Comes Out Tops. Retrieved from http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/mushroom-community-campus-comes-out-tops