(photo credit: Re:Vision Architecture)
Earlier this summer, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Environmental Center was certified as a Living Building by the International Living Future Institute. Designed by Re:Vision Architects with structural engineering by CVM, the Cafritz Center is now one of only thirteen projects in the world to reach this designation, which ensures that buildings “give more than they take, creating a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.”
Completed in 2015, the Cafritz Center has operated for at least one year at net-zero energy and net-zero water, while also remaining carbon neutral, three conditions necessary for Living Building certification. Living Buildings must also have been constructed with non-toxic and non-polluting materials.
As a component of the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which is located on the Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek, MD, the building serves a variety of educational functions within a complex that hosts more than 5,000 students per year. The Alice Ferguson Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes the environmental sustainability of the Potomac River watershed.