When NASA Ames planned to add the campus's first building in twenty years, they decided that the new building should be an exemplar in sustainability.

NASA Plans Sustainability Base

When we reached the moon, we saw our own world from a distance—a blue-green jewel that contained all of life as we know it, a finite and precious place. That image changed the way we think about our environments and was fundamental to the worldwide movement toward sustainability.

NASA's role has been to use the best of human know-how to elevate our reach and expand our possibilities. This is the agency's role on earth as much as it is in space.

NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California was established as a research and development campus to explore some of the agency's most innovative technologies. The center supports nearly all NASA Mission Directorates in some capacity. It houses 2,300 researchers and $3 billion worth of equipment, operating with an annual budget of over $600 million.

Destination: Earth
When NASA Ames planned to add the campus's first building in twenty years, they decided that the new building should be an exemplar in sustainability. The N232 building is thought of as a prototype for an extraterrestrial dwelling in the sense that N232 will be completely optimized for its environment, as any type of lunar building must be. In that regard, N232 is a model for earth as well.

AECOM worked with William McDonough + Partners to help NASA express this vision, providing programming, architecture, interior design, landscape design, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural engineering, advanced building information modeling, and LEED consulting. The project is mandated to achieve the USGBC's LEED-NC certification, and is currently on track to achieve LEED-NC Platinum status. The design was completed in May 2009, and construction is estimated to reach completion in 2011.

Adapting to the environment
The goal at N232 was to create a near net-zero energy building. This would be achieved through extensive passive solar energy design augmented by roof-top photovoltaics and a geothermal well-field to reduce thermal energy impact. Other features include on-site water treatment and municipal supplied treated water for irrigation, resulting in zero potable water used for irrigation and 70% reduction in sewage flows. Additional strategies include very low-flow urinals, dual flush and high efficiency toilets, automatic faucets and low flow showers.

These measures have prompted NASA to refer to N232 as their "sustainability base." View the video NASA has created about N232 (you may need to download QuickTime).

Jake Herson