Juilliard School, Tianjin, China

The Tianjin Juilliard School is a destination for music education and performance unique in China and a new dynamic cultural and social hub set along the Yujiapu Financial District river promenade.

Transsolar’s climate concepts target three key conceptual and performance goals: Create a semi-indoors public entrance lobby that is perceived as an extension of the adjacent park; demonstrate world-class energy performance while meeting the stringent indoor environmental requirements for world-class music education and performance, and two stars in the Chinese green rating system.

Large skylights flood the public entrance lobby with direct sunlight, providing sufficient light for plants that are normally grown outdoors and creating an unprecedented indoor-outdoor environment. Rather than reducing solar heat gain through exterior shading – which reduces light levels and changes the resulting plant palette and indoor experience – solar radiation strikes a radiant floor cooled by water circulated through vertical geothermal boreholes. This simple, low-tech solution maintains the architectural design intent for the lobby. Lastly, a vegetated outdoor courtyard within the lobby acts as a ‘green lung’ drawing in all the air used for mechanical ventilation.

All practice rooms have excellent daylight access due to the thin floor plan of the ‘bridges’ containing them. Administrative spaces receive daylight through smaller skylights in the solid ‘pavilions’ and punched window openings. Performance spaces provide strategic views to maintain the connection to outside while providing a controlled lighting condition.

The remainder of the design is based on a high-performance, well-insulated envelope with low air leakage. This enables the use of low-energy heating and cooling systems, supplying minimum ventilation air to most non-performance spaces with heating and cooling provided by silent radiant panels. The lobby and administrative spaces are also designed for natural ventilation on days when outside conditions permit.

Fly-through showing high daylight quality in all spaces >