CSET – CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

Maria Antonietta Santangelo

The CSET campus — Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies — is the project for Nottingham University by Mario Cucinella Architects. The building demonstrates a comprehensive approach combining creative work and technological research, reflected in the vision of Cucinella, who won the 2009 MIPIM - Green Building award for the CSET. Environmental considerations and specific local features determined the building’s design.
This building is only 1,300 sq.m. and is located near a stream. Covering five floors plus a basement, it holds laboratories, classrooms, and a visitor center. The ground floor had no partitions and is connected to the wind tower at the back, which conducts power and provides a natural solution for ventilation and passive lighting for the interiors.

A roof garden covers the underground floor and is larger in square meters, leading to the entrance. The building is made into an icon through the dynamic composition of the elevations designed with a double-skin glass facade for the needed ventilation.
The simple module of the facade alternates transparent and opaque glass panes, with aluminum inserts based on the inclination of the shapes and evaluating their exposure. The center will promote and be a model of sustainable energy technologies, such as solar, photovoltaic, and wind energy, seeking to reduce energy demand. The Center’s architecture combines design innovation with traditional Chinese forms, borrowing the folded shapes of origami and looking similar to a great Chinese lantern in the urban landscape.