Kyoto: Boston University’s CCDS Wins 2024 Kyoto Global Design Award
Excerpt from Kyoto Global Design Awards | November 19, 2024 | Photo: Tom Arban, Nic Lehoux
Boston University's Center for Computing & Data Sciences is a 345,000-square-feet, 19-storey-tall learning environment built on a dense urban site. Realized as a vertical campus, it prioritizes human-centred design and maximizes opportunities for collaboration and connection. It brings 3000 students, faculty, and staff together under one roof, giving them a flexible, welcoming space for research, study, and teaching.
The Center’s cantilevered volumes rotate around a central core, offering each department its own identity and outdoor space. Cross-departmental collaboration is fostered via a central atrium, multiple classrooms and general-purpose spaces, a café, and an event space. Below the tower, an open, porous podium extends out to hover over Commonwealth Avenue, animating the streetscape and broadcasting the energy of the building.
The Center is one of Boston's largest sustainable buildings and the university's first LEED Platinum building. It meets the university’s sustainability targets, contributes to its carbon neutrality target by 2040, and meets Boston’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
A closed-loop geothermal system heats and cools the building, with 31 boreholes drilled 1500 feet below ground. This provides 90% of the building’s thermal capacity. A triple-glazed envelope, sun shading louvres, enhanced HVAC, heat recovery wheels, occupancy controls for interior lighting and plug load, and other energy-efficient strategies minimize energy consumption by approximately 30%.
Adjacent to the Charles River, it is elevated above flood guidelines and incorporates permeable pavers for stormwater management. Its water-efficient fixtures reduce water consumption by 37% annually. Fresh air is supplied over the chilled beams throughout the building, and its furnishing and finishes use low—to zero-carbon-emitting materials.
Eight green roofs with various native grasses, sedges, and wildflowers double as terraces, complete with seating, and provide new biodiverse habitats for plant and animal species, reduce the urban heat island effect, retain rainwater, and prevent runoff.