Most of the features that make the new Arthur L. Irving building so efficient, including heating, cooling, and rooftop solar panels are not visible to the general public.
“How might we make the Irving Institute’s energy performance visible?
Project Details
Project Partner: Amanda Graham, Academic Director for the Irving Institute, Rosi Kerr, Director of Dartmouth Sustainability Office
Project Timeline: 3 terms
The Design Corps team identified a series of “sustainability stories,” components of the building that reveal how the building works and what makes it so energy efficient. To share these stories, their design had to be convenient and compelling enough to get people to pause and learn more about the space they were in.
Their mural solution acts as a visual representation of all that goes into the Irving Institute building: the natural lighting, the water heating and cooling system, the natural ventilation, the building’s automation, and all of the hands that went into making the building what it is today.
<aside> 📰 ARTICLE: Student Mural Raises Energy Awareness by Design
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<aside> 📰 ARTICLE: Student-Designed Mural Makes 'the Invisible' Visible in the Irving Institute.
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<aside> 📰 ARTICLE: Students design, create mural in Irving Institute atrium
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCegDfoZZzQ
In the fall of 2019, construction began on the new Arthur L. Irving building, which would house the Irving institute, the Sustainability Office, and a variety of other organizations on campus. The new Irving building was designed to be an energy superstar and, following its opening in the winter of 2022, is expected to consume less than 20 mmbtu/sq foot. This puts the building in the top tier of building energy performance. However, most of the features that make it so efficient, including heating, cooling, and rooftop solar panels are not visible to the general public.
Because the efficiency of the building is exceptional, it should be something that is seen and celebrated by its occupants. This was the challenge brought to Design Corps.
To better understand the challenge, the team pursued both primary and secondary research.
The team participated in a series of energy seminars to understand how Dartmouth’s energy system operates. Then they researched Dartmouth’s sustainability goals and how they compared to a number of other universities including, Georgia Tech, Smith College, and Princeton University. Through this research, the team came to understand the key principles of energy efficiency that would be important to include in storytelling and visualization practices.
The team conducted a series of interviews with students, professors, and other professionals. These interviews illuminated the personal elements necessary to share the energy efficiency story and engage and educate occupants in the building.
Presentations: The team presented their work both at the Irving Institute seminar session and for the Board of Advisors meeting of the Arthur L. Irving Institute. These presentations offered valuable opportunities for feedback from key stakeholders and redirected the design team’s work.
Through their primary and secondary research, the Design Corps team identified a series of “sustainability stories,” components of the building that reveal how the building works and what makes it so energy efficient. They identified four key stories:
The team felt that these stories did a great job of highlighting the unique features of the Irving Institute, but they knew that they needed to convey these stories in an engaging way so that everyday people would feel compelled to stop and learn. Their final design had to meet people where they were able to learn, and be compelling enough to get people to pause and learn more about the space they were in. These insights led to the team to the decision to commission a mural in the main atrium of the building. The mural would visually engage people in the atrium and get them to pause, and then short statements alongside the piece would tell the sustainability stories and allow people to learn more. Additionally, commissioning a team of student artists would bring a new group of people into the building, people who may not have otherwise engaged with or known about the Irving Institute.
The Design Corps team commissioned a team of student artists to design and install a mural on the glass facade of the Project Lab in the main atrium of the Irving Institute. They send out an interest survey all across campus and gathered a team of seven artists who were interested in working on this project. The team then passed along all the information and sustainability stories that they had gathered through their research and asked the artists to convey these stories visually. The Design Corps team led a design workshop with the artists to start generating ideas and visuals that represented the energy efficiency of the building and all of the components that go into it.
After the initial workshop, the artists were sent out to collaborate on their own and come back to the Design Corps team with proposed mural designs. After several iterations and revisions, the team came up with a design that the artists, Design Corps team, and Irving Institute felt properly conveyed the stories of the building. The mural was installed during the last few weeks of the spring term, and passers-by were encouraged to come help paint and contribute to the piece. At the end of the spring term, the team had fully installed the mural as well as created both an artist’s statement and a curators’ statement to go alongside the work. The piece will be on display for the coming months, and the hope is that this process will be repeated in the future so that other artists can come and artistically display the energy efficiency of the building for others to enjoy and learn from.
The mural acts as a visual representation of all that goes into the Irving Institute building: the natural lighting, the water heating and cooling system, the natural ventilation, the building’s automation, and all of the hands that went into making the building what it is today. When combined with the Curators’ and Artists’ statements, the mural draws in everyday users of the building and encourages them to learn more about the space. Not only that but the process of commissioning and creating the mural brought in student artists from all different departments who may not have otherwise engaged with the space. This final deliverable addresses the initial how might we statement by illuminating the sustainability stories of the Irving Institute in a creative and engaging way that draws in everyday users of the building.
