This project was developed as a design and construction competition entry for the Courthouse Administration of Puerto Rico, in collaboration with the architectural office of Abruña Musgrave Architects and a multidisciplinary team of industry professionals. The proposal involves the construction of a building to be used as the new Aibonito Courthouse. Among the various criteria guiding this tribunal's design, those related to the project’s sustainability were of the highest order of priority. We strived to design installations of a minimum negative impact upon the natural and built environment, which would obtain reductions in the consumption of both, energy and monetary resources.
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The building is organized in three principal volumes that surround a spacious central interior patio filled with trees. This patio cavity protects and gives shade to the interior sides of the three main volumes, reducing the solar heat gain. The volumes are connected by way of a series of waiting halls and bridges that direct the flow of people while at the same time generating spatial interest.
The separations between these volumes permit a natural ventilation scheme within the circulation spaces and the public waiting halls. Strategically placed fenestrations on the East and West facades promote the cross ventilation of these spaces. The constrained opening at the East side permits the acceleration of the prevailing breezes across the interior public space, promoting a sense of comfort. The interior patio would also permit natural light to spread throughout the full building height. In terms of the mechanical air ventilation systems, these are exclusively dedicated to the tribunal medullar functions, while deliberately excluding support areas like corridors and waiting public halls. The modern fenestration system throughout the rest of the building consists of double pane laminated glass windows with high shading coefficients and operable, in order to permit natural ventilation in the case it becomes necessary.
The building also incorporates a rain water harvesting system that will supply water to the water closets, to the fire extinguishing system’s cistern, and that will cover the maintenance and the domestic and irrigation necessities. Additional contemporary design considerations include a garden of endemic flowers, allusive to the poetic name with which Aibonito is commonly known in Puerto Rico: “the town of flowers”. This garden would serve as an element of visual delight across the pedestrian trail from the tribunal building to the visitors’ parking building. This is actually an existing building which we proposed to preserve and rehabilitate to cover the parking necessities. The proposed building for the Aibonito Courthouse would aspire to obtain a LEED Silver Certification for sustainability from the US Green Building Council.
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