Enviromental Education Center

Washington, DC - 2005

This design competition entry was done in collaboration with Kao Design Group, for a Discovery Museum to be developed on a brown field island in the middle of the Anacostia River, in Washington, DC.

Our design intent is to create a unique journey of nature and discovery for both children and adults that link the mainland, Heritage and Kingman Islands and their diverse aquatic and coastal environments. The journey explores eight distinct experiences through diverse ecological habitats and exhibitions. The project is conceived as a Living Laboratory, designed as Model of Sustainable Design, making natural process visible. The project consist of multiple parts that can be flexibly phased and sized in response to project demands.

The building's mission is to serve as a "living laboratory", to make regenerative technologies and systems visible, and to serve as a model of ecologically sustainable design.

The buildings are organisms with their own metabolisms, and they use adaptive strategies like those of natural organisms. The buildings are integral to the program in a vital and active way, they are not inert containers.