The structure is covered with a green roof of more than 1 hectare, planted with almost 2 million specimens of various plants characteristic of the flora of Northern California. This turf, complete with solar stripe around the perimeter, is the main energy element of the new building, which is set to become the largest in the world to receive the LEED platinum sustainability certification.
The Academy complex convincingly proves that "green" architecture should not be ugly, that efficiency is not synonymous with unattractiveness. Renzo Piano, combining high-tech and organic forms, has created an unexpectedly classic building, whose "portico" of the main façade brings to mind both ancient and classicist temples and the work of Mies van der Rohe. And next to the new walls and ceilings, the parts of the old Academy building destroyed by the 1989 earthquake, designed in the spirit of 1930s neoclassicism, which are included in the general ensemble, look surprisingly awkward.
When designing, Piano faced the difficult task of connecting 8 research units in one building, storage for 20 million copies of the collection of the Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Natural History, an aquarium and a planetarium located in 12 buildings of different times, erected in the period from 1916 to the end of the 1980s. The central "hill" of the structure's ceiling hides a lobby with a sycamore grove. Thanks to its steep slopes, cool air enters the building and spreads through the rooms around the main foyer. Two other green mountains are located above the planetarium (with an aquarium placed one floor below) and a domed hall of the "Rainforests of the World" exposition, which covers 4 tiers of the building.
A considerable part of the exhibitions of the part of the Academy of Sciences, open to the public, is devoted to environmental problems: environmental pollution, the disappearance of animal species, and global warming. The building itself helps to fulfill this educational mission: visitors can climb onto its green roof and learn about the many useful functions it performs, including thermal and sound insulation, rainwater collection, etc. automatically opening doors: their task is to catch the wind from the ocean and use it for natural ventilation of the halls.
Renzo Piano used high transparency glass for the walls and floors of the building to enhance the sense of unity between the interior of the building and its surroundings - Golden Gate Park. According to him, he wanted to create the impression that the green carpet of the park was slightly lifted and a building was placed under it - as an integral part of its natural environment.
The academy stands opposite
The de Young's Herzog & de Meuron Museum, which opened in 2005, and this ensemble of two remarkable buildings seems to encompass almost all the diversity of the language of modern architecture.
