To keep pace with its expanding research and education program, Cape Eleuthera Institute needed to create new housing options for long-term researchers and full-time faculty. The new housing facility creates a vibrant living learning environment where faculty, researchers, and the Institute community at large can gather, socialize, and interact. Framing the edge of a quad at the entrance to campus, the new building welcomes residents and truly encapsulates the Institute’s environmental mission.
The facility’s design is sympathetic to the vernacular of the Bahamas to support the idea of living sustainability and respecting the indigenous environment. Sited around an existing mangrove, the new building needs to be self-sufficient due to its remote location. With a cistern, gray water collection and recycling, photovoltaic panels, and solar thermal collection for hot water, the building seeks to be completely independent of the grid and is a net exporter of electricity. It is designed to achieve Living Building and LEED Gold certifications.
The design team includes, Daniel Rew, AIA, Princeton Porter, AIA, Harrison-Hamnett, P.C., and The Rock Group Consulting Group.
