It looks like a cheese grater, but Harvard's new building has environmental superpowers

From a distance, the new Science and Engineering Complex at Harvard University looks as though it’s trapped inside a metallic cheese grater. A grid of stainless steel is enmeshed around the half-million square foot complex, housing the labs, lecture halls and classrooms for complex subjects ranging from biotech to mechanical engineering. Despite its literal cutting edge looks, the metal facade is actually a low-tech environmental solution. Modeled to block the heat of the sun in the summer and allow it in during the winter, the facade’s panels are an intricate but stationary control system that dramatically reduces the building’s heating and cooling requirements. Designed by Behnisch Architekten and manufactured with a special material-saving technique, this cheese grater exterior could be a model for green buildings to come. Read my story here. — Nate Berg   It looks like a cheese grater, but this new Harvard building has environmental superpowers This extraordinary facade helps reduce the Science and Engineering Complex’s carbon emissions by 42%.   READ MORE   How childhood bullying inspired this Lego VP to design an LGBTQ set Lego will start selling a rainbow-colored set in honor of Pride Month on June 1.   READ MORE   Everyone from Gucci to Louis Vuitton is betting big on digital fashion. Here’s why they should proceed with caution Is digital fashion really championing diversity and inclusion?   READ MORE   The mind-bending design behind Volvo’s new self-driving concept car Fast Company went inside Volvo’s innovation lab in Gothenburg, Sweden, to learn how the carmaker is using sound waves to solve one the industry’s thorniest design challenges.   READ MORE   The moon is completely uninhabitable. Could high-tech lighting change that? Light design can mimic the feeling of home, even 238,000 miles away.   READ MORE

See some of the most remarkable microscope photographs From tulip buds to Vitamin C, there’s immense beauty in the natural world that usually remains hidden.   READ MORE

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