Lantern-inspired Sustainable Research Building is China's first
zero carbon university building The Koo Lee Institute of
Sustainable Environments, named after its benefactor, sits in a
large meadow alongside a stream in Ningbo, a fast growing city
of 1.2 million inhabitants on the oriental coast of China.
Created and led by Nottingham's School of the Built Environment,
the Institute stands in the first independent campus of the
People’s Republic of China. Within the Institute, a new
facility, Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET),
stands. Designed by Mario Cucinella Architects, an Italian
practice at the forefront of environmental research and
responsible for the SIEEB building in Beijing, the new
Sustainable Research Building illustrates an international
collaboration towards sustainability in the world's greatest
energy consuming country. Inspired in its design by Chinese
lantern and traditional wooden screens, the building is
conceived as a sustainable beacon whose 22 m high twisting tower
will