西雅图大学采用全木结构建造商学院大楼

Seattle-based studio LMN Architects has completed the mass-timber Founders Hall building for the University of Washington's Foster School of Business in Seattle.

Founders Hall is an 84,800-square-foot building with five floors spread over three volumes on the University of Washington's campus in northern Seattle.

LMN Architects designed Founders Hall for the University of Washington

LMN designed the building for the business school to serve a variety of functions for the teachers and staff including offices, classrooms and gathering spaces.

According to the studio, the building is the "first fully mass timber building on campus".

The structure was made using mass timber

Mass timber – an engineered wood product – elements include glued laminated timber structural posts and beams and cross-laminated timber flooring.

"With the foundation of our design rooted in a mass-timber structure, we leveraged both the inherent beauty and sustainability of wood," said LMN principal Kate Westbrook.

"The use of mass-timber lowers the project's embodied carbon substantially while we celebrate the Douglas fir to create a warm and inviting atmosphere on the interior."

Brick, curtain wall and glazing was used for the cladding

Other materials that were used to complement the timber include brick curtain walls and glazing used for the exteriors as well as concrete for the shear cores and steel long-span beams for the classroom ceilings.

"The peeled-away brick facade paired with carefully placed glazing exposes the timber inside the building while providing views of the historical Douglas firs, giving the higher floors of the building an immersive experience with the northwest forest character of the site," added LMN.

The structure was designed to meet the university's n Green Building Standards

On the interior, the use of wood is most evident in a five-storey central staircase that is framed by a series of mass-timber support beams.

According to the studio, the building was used as a "proof-of-concept" for construction finance company Aureus Earth's initiative to financially quantify carbon storage in new buildings and sell carbon offsets to fund green construction projects.

A central stairway connects the five storeys

"The building will store more than 1,000 tons of CO2 for decades, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere for the lifetime of the building," said LMN.

The designers also implemented a sustainable strategy for heating and cooling the structure, in line with the University of Washington Green Building Standards, which aim to reduce carbon emissions by 90 per cent.

The structure includes classrooms, offices and meeting spaces

According to LMN, this goal was achieved through the sequestering of carbon through the use of mass timber and by "integrating natural and mechanical ventilation".

LMN principal Robert Smith told Dezeen that Founders Hall's energy usage is free of fossil fuels. While it has a "solar ready" rooftop, the architecture studio achieved the energy goal by not connecting the structure to the steam grid on campus.

"Founders Hall is an efficient, electric building and has been designed to be fossil fuel-free," said Smith.

"It is all electric and gets its power from the local electric utility which uses cleaner power sources such as wind and hydropower."

The building has a seperate energy grid connection from the rest of campus

LMN has built a number of buildings on the University of Washington campus, including a computer science centre that bears billionaire Bill Gates' name.

Other projects by the studio, which was founded in Seattle in 1979, include an extension to the Asian Art Museum in Seattle and a viewing platform on top of a bridge in Everett, Washington.

Recently, a structure with mass-timber elements in Milwaukee designed by Korb + Associates Architects became the world's tallest timber building.

The photography is by Tim Griffith

Project credits:

Architect: LMN Architects

Design-builder: Hoffman Construction Company

Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates with Katerra, Carla Keel, and Autoscan

Civil engineer: Mayfly Engineering & Design, Pllc.

Landscape architect: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Ltd.

Lighting design: HLB Lighting Design

Mechanical and electrical engineer: PAE Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Plumbing engineer: Burman Design

Signage: Studio Matthews

Accessibility: Studio Pacifica

Commissioning: Wilson Jones Commissioning

Envelope consultant: Morrison Hershfield with McClintock Façade Consulting

LEED administration and energy modeler: O’Brien360

Environmental graphic designer: Advent, LLC.

Acoustics: The Greenbusch Group