{"id":69323,"date":"2021-03-30T08:45:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T12:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/?p=69323"},"modified":"2021-08-13T08:28:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T12:28:24","slug":"architectural-details-kapsarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.arc.ht\/blog\/practice\/details\/architectural-details-kapsarc\/","title":{"rendered":"Architectural Details: Zaha Hadid Architects\u2019 Honeycomb Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Great architecture shapes and expresses our human and environmental conditions. When considering sustainability and systems thinking, these ideas often play out through technologies tied to energy and water. For the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center<\/a> (KAPSARC) by Zaha Hadid Architects<\/a>, the team set out to create a building tied to global energy research and the local site conditions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\"\" KAPSARC is a non-profit institution founded in 2007 by the Saudi Council of Ministers. The center brings together an international group of expert researchers of more than 15 nationalities to advance the understanding of domestic and global energy challenges and opportunities. As a result, the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center design takes the form of a 750, 000 square feet energy and environmental research campus exploring the potential of effective and productive energy use.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The defining element of the campus is its honeycomb cellular structure and courtyards. Zaha Hadid Architects worked with Arup to create buildings that \u201cturn their back to the sun\u201d to minimize solar heat gain and take advantage of prevailing desert winds. The campus incorporates five facilities: the Energy Knowledge Centre; the Energy Computer Centre; a Conference Centre with an exhibition hall and 300-seat auditorium; a Research Library with archives for 100,000 volumes; and the Musalla, a place for prayer & contemplation, as well as additional ancillary buildings located within a 60-hectare site. The cellular structure adapts to these multifunctional uses with the project, and at the same time, connects the buildings beneath a single vast canopy.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\" ZHA worked with Arup\u2019s engineering team and Saudi Aramco to create an integrated approach to sustainability from the beginning, and a strategy for addressing critical issues from the concept design stage of the honeycomb cells through construction. The project\u2019s self-shading courtyards, building massing, and orientation are designed to maximize the amount of natural daylight throughout the interior. The team\u2019s hexagonal and prismatic honeycomb structures use the least material to create a lattice of cells within a given volume; the idea was to soften the site\u2019s intense light and heat.<\/p>\n