Inspired by: Prairie grassland ecosystems and earth-sheltered geology
Atelier 10
105%
energy generation
of total building needs
109,000 ft²
building area
Living Building Standard certified
100% local
materials
minimised transport carbon
The Problem
Large institutional buildings typically have massive carbon footprints from construction and operation, destroy the ecosystems on which they sit, and rely entirely on external energy inputs. Presidential libraries should honour conservation legacies but rarely do so through their own design.
A 109,000 ft² presidential library achieving Living Building Standard certification through earth-sheltered design, local grazing agriculture for carbon sinking, and energy generation exceeding 105% of building needs.
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is an ambitious regenerative design that achieved Living Building Standard certification—one of the most rigorous green building standards in the world. The design uses the Living Story methodology to understand what the North Dakota prairie landscape wants to do and how the building can enhance rather than diminish it. The architecture is partly earth-sheltered, built under a unifying green roof that protects from harsh winter winds while replacing the disrupted prairie vegetation and providing seamless habitat for local flora and fauna. The building uses exclusively local materials, meets holistic carbon neutrality, and leverages solar energy to generate 105% of its energy needs. Perhaps most innovatively, the project partners with a local rancher who grazes cattle on the surrounding land, using regenerative agriculture to rebuild topsoil, increase biomass, restore bird ecosystems, and establish a carbon sink that offsets the building's construction carbon. Bio-climatic strategies reduce the ecological footprint by building earth-sheltered structures that use the ground itself as thermal mass, supplemented by ground-source heat pumps that leverage free geothermal energy.
Biomimicry Breakdown
How Prairie grassland ecosystems and earth-sheltered geology translates into Roosevelt Presidential Library: Regenerative Living Building
Find your own nature-inspired opportunities
Inspired by Roosevelt Presidential Library: Regenerative Living Building? The Biomimicry Opportunity Map scans your company website and suggests challenges worth solving the way nature would.
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