The California Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences is the oldest natural history museum and research institute in California, gathering 26 million specimens. It is also one of the largest museums of this kind in the world. It covers 37000 square meters and it was built in 1853 but due to earthquake it had to be rebuilt in 2008. One part of it suffered seismic damage as it was not engineered properly. The architect who designed the new building was Renzo Piano.

There are some main venues in which exhibits are placed. One of them is rainforest, placed in a glass dome. There is also planetarium with the world's largest, completely digital dome and aquarium which includes coral reef exhibitions, a colony of african penguins and tidepool. The biggest room though is Kimball Natural History Museum in which scientists are working on real, live research projects and who can be viewed doing their work from outside the lab by public visitors.

The building includes a wide range of environmental friendly features such as green roof covered in 1,7 million Californian plants. It opens every night to allow the fresh air to come inside and it regulates interior temperature. It also uses mostly natural lightning, recycles rainwater for irrigation and produces two times less waste water than before the rebuilding. What's more, it was even constructed of recycled concrete.

This design won the Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence and the Holcim Award Silver for sustainable construction projects.

REFERENCES

1. Renzo Piano - The Art of Making Buildings (2018). London. 15 September 2018 - 20 January 2019

2. 2019 California Academy of Sciences; Available at: https://www.calacademy.org/what-to-see-and-do

3. 2018 TEECOM or its affiliates, Available at: http://teecom.com/projects/california-academy-of-the-sciences/

4. Arup 2018, Available at: https://www.arup.com/projects/california-academy-of-sciences