The Ecology School

This non-profit residential learning center works to link human and natural systems through immersive learning experiences for children and adults, making the purposeful use of wood construction and finish materials a natural choice. Designed through a unique three-firm architectural collaboration, it includes a dining commons and three two-story dormitories made from a mix of mass timber and light-frame wood construction. The team used wood to meet both the school’s embodied carbon goal and strict requirements of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), one of the most rigorous measures of social and environmental performance in the built environment. They reduced embodied carbon by using local, renewable materials, including FSC-certified New England wood, and accounted for the project’s total embodied carbon impact through a one-time carbon offset within the property’s boundary. The Ecology School is Net Zero Energy, Net Zero Water, and built to Passive House standards. 16,500 sf / Type V-B construction