I recently sat down with Aliester Saunders to discuss the plans for the new Integrated Sciences Building, which will be the first academic building in the United States to have a bio-wall, and will also be the largest bio-wall ever built. A bio-wall is a permeable wall made with plants. The plants act as a filter between the indoor and outdoor environments, leaving the building's air clean, and assist with temperature control, making the building environmentally friendly. The Canada-based firm Diamond & Schmitt Architects is responsible for the concept and design of the building; the firm has constructed other environmentally-friendly buildings, like the Corus Entertainment building on Toronto's waterfront, which is complete with its own bio-wall. The Integrated Sciences Building will be the most expensive building Drexel has ever constructed, costing $60 million.
ASK: What can you tell us about the new building?
AS: The first floor has lecture halls, a café, a lot of open space. [It's a] sort of a real gathering space for the whole campus: [like how] the Starbucks in the bottom of Pearlstein is packed all of the time – I think this is going to be the same; there is a lot of space for students to hang out. On the second floor is the Steinbright Career Development Center (SCDC), some organic teaching labs, and some bio-research labs. The third floor is almost all bio-teaching labs for the bioscience and biotechnology department with about a lab and a half of the biomedical engineering. The fourth and fifth floors are faculty research labs for the bioscience and biotechnology department. One of the unique features of the building is the bio-wall, which is getting a lot of press. It is basically a permeable foam wall, with plants that don't need soil to grow. Microbes in the roots of those plants remove particulates and volatile chemicals, so you have a purifying effect that reduces the need to bring in fresh air needed to heat or cool [the building], so it's energy efficient. Also, you can use [the bio-wall] as a humidifier or dehumidifier by changing the temperature of the water that feeds the plants. If you look at it, it's pretty striking. We went to Canada to see the first bio-wall.
ASK: How many faculty members will be housed in the new building?
AS: There will be about 30 faculty members from bioscience and biotechnology. [SCDC] has about 75 people in it. There will also be a building manager, security guards, and that sort of stuff. When you are in this building you can feel the difference in the air. Normally when you go into a greenhouse it is really humid, it is not real humid but there is a rich quality to the air. It is really quite unique.
ASK: It doesn't feel stuffy?
AS: It has this refreshing feel to it. It's quite nice. The air from the bio-wall will be pumped into the common spaces and not the labs. The cost savings for using [the air] only for the common areas is quite large as well.
ASK: Are there any other special features of the building?
AS: There is an event space. There isn't much student gathering space around campus. Each floor has a lounge. There are lots of places for people to hang out or study. These features will make this building very useful and friendly. In addition, you can see all of the natural light that is coming in, they have tried hard to make this building transparent and use "borrowed light" from outside.
ASK: So the rooms won't get too hot due to sunlight?
AS: There will be light [for reading]. Most of the first floor is "transparent." The lecture halls will have a window, a huge window, but it is going to be glazed so you cannot see through it. You will still have light control for projection. The light is going to be very nice. There are these very nice architectural elements; there is also the spiral double staircase, which, for us as biologists, is very reminiscent of a DNA double-helix. Simple things that are not so simple because of the age of this building [Stratton Hall] have been corrected to make life much easier for faculty and students.
ASK: The bio-wall goes up all five stories?
AS: It might go to four because you need space above it to access it. Someone will be hired to clean the wall, which means picking up dead leaves. The other aspect of the bio-wall that is interesting is the Dean's [of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Donna Murasko] vision of using it as something to study since some of the research that goes on in our Environmental Science department is about environmental toxins. The idea [is to use] this architectural element [the bio-wall] as a research tool to understand how it works, how to make it work better, what things does it work better for.
ASK: Will there be any mold problems with the bio-wall?
AS: Supposedly not; we asked those questions, but I am sure there will be some unforeseen problems. The bio-wall has been around a while and they keep refining the design of it. Hopefully the mold issues will not be there at all.
ASK: I see there is a lot of space [on the third floor]. There are a lot of spaces to meet with TAs and professors.
AS: Yes, formally and informally. So the other nice thing is that you will bump into your TAs on your way to class. A lot of higher education happens outside of the classroom in those casual interactions. To facilitate those interactions, at the apex of the atrium, is this meeting space. There will be tools there to help the interaction.
ASK: What is the mission of this building?
AS: The mission is to provide space for the teaching and research missions of some to the science faculties. We have Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, and Bioscience and Biotechnology. The whole building has a teaching influence: the first floor being lecture halls; the second being mostly co-op; the third floor being teaching labs; and the fourth and fifth floors being research labs. Think about what Drexel stands for: active learning, and the interaction between the classroom and practical world. And I think this is an archetype for that. Those kinds of different learning environments are what make an education at Drexel so valuable. This defines what a Drexel education is in a building.
ASK: Thank you for your time.
AS: It was a pleasure.
