EDWARD MAZRIA

MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY, NORTH CAROLINA, 1984

PRESENTED BY:
DALINA SINGH
PRANAV GUPTA
PRIYANKA MANGLA

EDWARD MAZRIA

WHY SHUT OUT THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN BUILDING THE BUILDING

SHOULD BE INTIMATELY CONNECTED TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Mt. Airy Library

The Stockebrand Residence

In 2003, Mazria founded Architecture 2030 which sets

guides for reducing energy consumption and opts for
energy efficient methods from the materials for
construction to the actual process of building.
It addresses the materials, strategies of construction,
the way the building functions on its own and the way
it functions within the context of a city.
The building sector, he concluded from the data,
consumes approximately half of all energy production
and is responsible for about half of all greenhouse gas
emissions.

Bosque School

The Rio Grande Botanic Garden Conservatory

MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY

Location:- Mt. Airy, NC United States

Architect/Engineer: Mazria, Inc.

Owner: Mt. Airy

Building Type: Governmental

Year Built: 1984

Size (SF): 16,000

HVAC: Passive solar heating and cooling, natural

ventilation

Lighting: Day lighting, efficient lighting

Envelope: Operable windows, high mass, cool roof,

device and tree shading

Energy Highlights: The library uses about one sixth

as much energy per square foot
as a nearby municipal building
and 86% less energy per year for
lighting than a typical
commercial building

MT. AIRY PUBLIC LIBRARY,

NORTH CAROLINA
The design of Mt. Airy Library successfully applies renewable energy technologies
in a facility that calls for high illumination levels and humidity control in a region
with hot, humid summers and cool winters.

The library plan is organized around a circulation

spine and main lending desk, from which the
librarian can have visual control of the building.

A saw-tooth clerestory above the structural bays

provides daylight over the circulation desk, reading
areas and reference stacks.

A butterfly roof configuration with glazed ends and

a central elongated light well provides illumination
for the open stacks area.

 Passive cooling in the building is achieved in a

number ways.
Shade trees and a light-colored roof membrane
reduce the impact of solar radiation in summer.
Openable windows allow for natural ventilation
when the weather permits.
Thick white colored masonry exterior walls
provide the thermal lag necessary to delay the
effect of the summer sun on the interior until the
evening hours when the library is closed.
Passive heating in winter is accomplished by
storing the heat gained through south facing
windows and clerestories in CMU walls, the
concrete structural elements and the tiled
concrete floor slab.

Fig. 3. Reading room, lower level, showing

sawtooth roof monitors above the structural
bays and fixed aluminum shade louvers
aligned with the tops of the reinforced
concrete frame.

Fig. 4. The well-scaled, well-lit childrens area.

Fig. 5. Reading room looking south, showing

fluorescent task lights above computer
terminals.

Fig. 6. Looking east toward stacks, showing

one half of the underside of the butterfly
roof and glazed end (far right).

Fig. 7. Closeup of lightshelf (center right) and

butterfly ceiling (top) used to disperse and
diffuse natural light over the stacks which
enters south-facing clerestory (top right).

Fig. 8. The ramped and stair portion of the

building joins reading areas, reference, and
open stacks.

Exterior
At the exterior, south- and west-facing clerestories with exterior light shelves extended natural light onto the
ceilings and deep into reading spaces, while shading the large windows below from high summer sun
(Figs. 1, 9 above). These are further augmented by a light court onto which the staff wings overlooks;
the aforementioned sawtooth rooftop monitors over the circulation desk, reading areas and reference
stacks; and the butterfly roof over the open stacks.

Fig. 9. Exterior view of reading area

showing south- and west-facing
clerestories with exterior light shelves.

CONCLUSIONS

This buildings concentration on passive solar and daylighting

strategies is exemplary for a building of any size or type, and is
especially well-suited for a library.

Two other strengths of this building are:

Circulation
The ramped (and stair) portion of the building (Fig. 8 above) not only
brings users in wheelchair or on foot together, allowing them to
seamlessly navigate a building on a steeply sloping site, the change
in levels successfully delineates spaces, helps define their
character, and introduces a dynamism of views and perspective
often missing from relatively small public buildings.

Siting and massing

While the building has the commanding presence befitting a
municipal building, its beautiful sloped site with a few well-located
mature trees is left uncharacteristically and generously open (Fig. 1),
partly due to skillful massing. Surface parking has been kept to a
minimum, and the approach to the entrance is both inviting and
vintage Modernist. Expanses of hard-wearing North Carolina granite
used on the broad, low facades belie an interior in which not a foot
of square space is wasted.