The gross area of the campus covered by these is 19,014 square meters, with 8,550.5 square meters of that in actual usable area, and another 3,438 square meters in circulation terraces covered with an overhead slatted shading canopy. The laboratory and office buildings are all oriented on east-west axes, in two parallel rows, with the classroom buildings centered between and to the north of these rows. In each group of three buildings the center one is lower than the adjacent ones, to provide for enhanced daylighting access of all buildings, with glare control also provided by the continuous overhead fixed slatted canopy. Serious consideration is being given to providing for the later integration of photovoltaics into the upper slat surfaces of the shading canopy. This is enhanced both by white exterior and interior surfaces and by the narrow dimensions of the buildings.
Summer breezes predominantly from the west travel around, between and into adjacent buildings.
Daytime and night ventilation are promoted by the smaller scale of the multiple buildings, while the cooling effect is enhanced with insulation placed external to the interior mass. The difficult heating impact from east and west is completely prevented architecturally by the east-west oriented buildings and by surfaces placed externally to the resulting narrow east and west facades, so that window treatments do not have to deal with this potential summer heating and glare problem. The northern-most buildings housing classrooms are raised above the ground, for natural cooled airflow over the shaded ground below. Tree plantings in a park-like arrangement provide for shade and exterior cooling. Evaporative cooling assist, and pre-cooling of ventilation air by wetted earth contact, aided by a wind tower, complete the environmental energy systems.