An atrium, viewed from above, features large plants, a rock garden fountain, and modern furniture arranged in a circle.

Design Philosophy

“How could a building be more like a tree?”

The starting point for this building’s design was simple and nontechnical, yet full of possibility. Of course, the path to achieving this vision was filled with complex challenges and constraints – technical and otherwise.

As this vision was transformed into an architectural plan, a kinship emerged with several of the natural laws expounded by Paul Hawken in The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (Collins Business Essentials). The design of the AJLC mirrored these characteristics of the natural world:

  1. Nature runs off of current solar income;
  2. Nature depends on diversity, thrives on diversity, and perishes in the imbalance of uniformity. Biodiversity trumps homogeneity at every turn;
  3. waste equals food. Ecologically, all waste has value to other modes of production; and
  4. ecosystems utilize feedback to govern decision making.

Design Process

Combining “state-of-the-shelf” technology with state-of-the-art design to generate a laboratory for the emerging field of ecological design at Oberlin and beyond.

AJLC Design Process

Design Partners

Researchers, designers, architects, and engineers joined forces to create this first-of-its-kind building.

AJLC Design Partners

Evolving Design

The AJLC was explicitly conceived as an integrated building-landscape system that would continue to change and to improve in performance over time.

AJLC Evolving Design

Additional Resources