Strengthening Campus Communities

The project includes the construction of graduate housing and modification of the entry to the adjacent Delano and Aldrich–designed quadrangle, and serves multiple purposes: as an active training facility for builders of communities, an affordable student residence, a demonstration site for ecological stewardship and leadership, and an outward expression of contemporary regenerative architecture.

The Living Village is the result of a decade-long, comprehensive, integrated planning and design process. Bruner/Cott Architects, lead Architect responsible for the project, worked in collaboration with Höweler + Yoon Architecture, Design Architect, and a consortium of industry-leading engineers and sustainability consultants: establishing guidelines for energy and water performance, prototyping super-insulated mass timber wall assemblies, and managing regulatory review with various water and utility authorities. Designed for net-positive energy and water, as well as zero waste, the project incorporates extensive systems for the collection, on-site treatment, and reuse of rainwater and wastewater.

The Living Village engages in dialogue with the strongly formal, historic architecture. The U-shaped two-story building captures solar energy and water with familiar but fresh massing, roof proportions, and form. The Living Village benefits from regenerative design strategies implemented for the climate and biome conditions of the northeast.

The Living Village is largest living-building residential complex on a university campus and is a key building project supporting Yale’s Sustainability Vision, Climate Action Plan, and Planetary Solutions Project.