This course explores the theme of environmental sustainability in the field of architecture, taking an exclusive journey within international architecture firms Behnisch Architekten. World-famous architect Stefan Behnisch reveal their design approach through an evocative narrative, in an approach that shows that caring for the environment and paying attention to energy saving are an essential choice shared by the entire international community. Closely examining the main projects they have built and the jobs they’re working on right now for the future, this course provides valuable examples and useful analysis tools that these firms have developed during their successful professional activity. Insights and inspiration on environmental sustainability are shared from decades of experience at the highest levels in the architectural field, offering a forum for discussion and a significant study opportunity for all architects keen to enhance their ability to assess the environmental impact of their own projects.
About the Architect
Stefan Behnisch
The Practice was initially founded in 1989, as a branch of Behnisch & Partner, a practice set up by Professor Günter Behnisch. After a period when Günter and his son Stefan worked together, in 1991 Stefan’s practice became completely independent.
In 2005, it was renamed Behnisch Architekten. Today, Stefan Behnisch has four partners who manage the Practice’s various offices: Stefan Rappold and Jörg Usinger in Stuttgart; Robert Matthew Noblett in Boston and Los Angeles (joined by director Kristi Paulso); and Robert Hösle in Munich. Overall, Behnisch Architekten employs some 140 architects, designers, technical specialists and support staff. During almost thirty years of operation, Practice projects have won recognition for their ecological approach to architecture. Flagship projects include: the IBN Institute of Wageningen, in the Netherlands (a European pilot project for sustainability); the Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hannover, a design developed in partnership with Transsolar KlimaEngineering in which a major underground thermal energy storage device provides interior air-conditioning without requiring any mechanical conditioning; the Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which at the time it was built was the largest LEED Platinum-grade commercial building in the world; the Terrence Donnelly Cellular and Biomolecular Research Center at the University of Toronto; the AGORA Pôle de recherche sur le cancer in Lausanne, Switzerland; adidas’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany; and most
recently, Harvard University’s Scientific and Engineering Complex, which is scheduled for completion in fall 2020.
