CityLab‘s Aria Bendix shares an award-winning project from two Carnegie Mellon students who designed an ecologically-friendly boarding school that features its pipes on the outside of the building as a visual reminder of their critical role in urban development.
The project, which was named the “Most Innovative” by the Flux Emerging Architects Design Competition, is designed to be located in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, which recently saw a push for affordable housing, but is still “searching for an identity”.
“We wanted to create beautiful and austere environments, but at the same time promote honesty through the pipe networks to show that these systems … can be made beautiful,”Goral tells CityLab. Of course, the Echoschool’s design is also functional: The pipes offer an extensive on-site wastewater-processing system. Water from the pipes can also be used to grow plants indoors.
Read more about the project on CityLab >>
