Kūlanihāko’i High School

Designed to be Net Zero Energy, Kihei High School will be one of the most sustainable school campuses in Hawaii. To support the project’s ambitious sustainability goals, Atelier Ten worked closely with the design team to integrate passive design strategies that optimize thermal comfort, daylight and natural ventilation.

Atelier Ten’s thermal comfort analysis guided intelligent design decisions that work with the natural laws of physics and the site’s solar and wind patterns to regulate indoor and outdoor temperatures through natural ventilation and optimized daylight. The campus is designed to manipulate the winds from the northeast through a series of louvers, roof vents and thermal chimneys.

The project incorperates thermal chimneys which utilize thermal mass for night flush ventilation. This pre-cools the classroom buildings at night so they are comfortable when students come in the morning. Throughout the day hours, the thermal mass gradually absorbs and stores excess heat, which is then purged during the night, facilitated by the ventilation provided by the chimneys. This innovative approach results in an impressive 32% increase in the number of school hours during which thermal comfort is met. In addition, Atelier Ten optimized ceiling fans to further enhance thermal comfort by providing a cooling effect of 4-5°F. This not only improves the comfort of occupants but also significantly reduces overall energy consumption.

Atelier Ten’s collaboration with the design team extends to the optimization of daylight utilization. As the sun moves over the buildings, it is deflected off the light-colored roof to maintain thermal comfort and is diffused into classroom spaces through vertical fins, solar shelves and trees. The campus includes an open-air courtyard that diffuses and reflects natural light into courtyard-facing classrooms. Atelier Ten optimized the courtyard’s shading system to allow daylight penetration into rooms closer to the building while also maintaining thermal comfort in outdoor spaces.

To meet the project’s Net Zero Energy goal, Atelier Ten set energy targets for each building and helped determine how much solar energy and PV area would be required. In the future, the PV canopy will go over the parking lots. Collectively, the designed buildings have achieved a 40% reduction in regulated loads compared to the ASHRAE Baseline, contributing significantly to the project’s sustainable and energy-efficient objectives.