Taking Cues From Nature

In 2017, the American Institute of Architects named the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)s Inouye Regional Centre as one of the years ten best examples of sustainable design. The centre represents the coming together of two different worlds - history and sustainability.

- Ramya Srinivasan

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Inouye Regional Centre, designed by HOK Architects, is located on the historic landmark site of Pearl Harbour’s Ford Island. It features the adaptive reuse of two world war II-era airplane hangars, that narrowly survived Japan’s December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, by linking them through a new steel and glass building. NOAA wanted to transform this endangered site into its regional headquarters, whist also creating a stellar example of sustainable design in the process.

At first glance, the 75-year-old hangars didn’t appear to possess the ideal foundation to create a sustainable building. For years they had sat abandoned, used primarily to store old cars. On further inspection, though, the buildings, designed in 1939 by noted architect Alfred Kahn, exhibited a lot of promise.

So, too, did the surrounding nature of the island. The project team turned to nature for the building’s energy solutions, drawing lessons from native plants, such as the monkeypod tree.

“It’s a single trunk tree that has a very dense top layer canopy and provides really good shade and thermal comfort during the hot humid days,” explains Zorana Bosnic, practice leader in HOK’s San Francisco office. “Then when it’s overcast and raining, the leaves curl up into a narrow, conic shape and allow the breezes and rain to reach the ground. The grass is literally greener under the monkeypod tree because it allows the rain to reach the soil.”