EDWARD MAZRIA MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY, NORTH CAROLINA, 1984

PRESENTED BY:DALINA SINGH

PRANAV GUPTAPRIYANKA MANGLA

EDWARD MAZRIA”WHY SHUT OUT THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN BUILDING… THE BUILDING SHOULD BE INTIMATELY CONNECTED TO THE ENVIRONMENT”

The Rio Grande Botanic Garden Conservatory

The Stockebrand ResidenceMt. Airy Library Bosque School

• In 2003, Mazria founded Architecture 2030 which sets guides for reducing energy consumption and opts for energy efficient methods from the materials for construction to the actual process of building.

• It addresses the materials, strategies of construction, the way the building functions on its own and the way it functions within the context of a city.

• The building sector, he concluded from the data, consumes approximately half of all energy production and is responsible for about half of all greenhouse gas emissions.

MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY• Location:- Mt. Airy, NC United States • Architect/Engineer: Mazria, Inc.• Owner: Mt. Airy• Building Type: Governmental• Year Built: 1984• Size (SF): 16,000• HVAC: Passive solar heating and cooling, natural ventilation• Lighting: Day lighting, efficient lighting• Envelope: Operable windows, high mass, cool roof, device and tree shading• Energy Highlights: The library uses about one sixth as much energy per square foot

as a nearby municipal building and 86% less energy per year for lighting than a typical commercial building

MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY, NORTH CAROLINAThe design of Mt. Airy Library successfully applies renewable energy technologies in a facility that calls for high illumination levels and humidity control in a region with hot, humid summers and cool winters.

• The library plan is organized around a circulation spine and main lending desk, from which the librarian can have visual control of the building.

• A saw-tooth clerestory above the structural bays provides daylight over the circulation desk, reading areas and reference stacks.

• A butterfly roof configuration with glazed ends and a central elongated light well provides illumination for the open stacks area.

• Passive cooling in the building is achieved in a number ways.

• Shade trees and a light-colored roof membrane reduce the impact of solar radiation in summer.

• Openable windows allow for natural ventilation when the weather permits.

• Thick white colored masonry exterior walls provide the thermal lag necessary to delay the effect of the summer sun on the interior until the evening hours when the library is closed.

• Passive heating in winter is accomplished by storing the heat gained through south facing windows and clerestories in CMU walls, the concrete structural elements and the tiled concrete floor slab.

Fig. 3. Reading room, lower level, showing sawtooth roof monitors above the structural bays and fixed aluminum shade louvers aligned with the tops of the reinforced concrete frame.

Fig. 4. The well-scaled, well-lit children’s area.

Fig. 5. Reading room looking south, showing fluorescent task lights above computer terminals.

Fig. 6. Looking east toward stacks, showing one half of the underside of the butterfly roof and glazed end (far right).

Fig. 7. Closeup of lightshelf (center right) and butterfly ceiling (top) used to disperse and diffuse natural light over the stacks which enters south-facing clerestory (top right).

Fig. 8. The ramped and stair portion of the building joins reading areas, reference, and open stacks.

Exterior

At the exterior, south- and west-facing clerestories with exterior light shelves extended natural light onto the ceilings and deep into reading spaces, while shading the large windows below from high summer sun (Figs. 1, 9 above). These are further augmented by a light court onto which the staff wings overlooks; the aforementioned sawtooth rooftop monitors over the circulation desk, reading areas and reference stacks; and the butterfly roof over the open stacks.

Fig. 9. Exterior view of reading area showing south- and west-facing clerestories with exterior light shelves.

CONCLUSIONS This building’s concentration on passive solar and daylighting

strategies is exemplary for a building of any size or type, and is especially well-suited for a library.

Two other strengths of this building are:

• CirculationThe ramped (and stair) portion of the building (Fig. 8 above) not only brings users in wheelchair or on foot together, allowing them to seamlessly navigate a building on a steeply sloping site, the change in levels successfully delineates spaces, helps define their character, and introduces a dynamism of views and perspective often missing from relatively small public buildings.

• Siting and massing

While the building has the commanding presence befitting a municipal building, its beautiful sloped site with a few well-located mature trees is left uncharacteristically and generously open (Fig. 1), partly due to skillful massing. Surface parking has been kept to a minimum, and the approach to the entrance is both inviting and vintage Modernist. Expanses of hard-wearing North Carolina granite used on the broad, low facades belie an interior in which not a foot of square space is wasted.