Kreher Preserve & Nature Center Environmental Education Building

Nestled within the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center, the new Environmental Education Building promotes wonder and exploration of the natural world and cultivates a sense of stewardship toward our community and environment by reinforcing the importance of harmony between nature and humans. Inspired by nature-based learning that children experience daily and imagined as an extension of the network of trails throughout the preserve, by which the children explore nature, the Environmental Education Building is organized along a central spine corridor which bends in an informal manner, a metaphor for a “learning trail.”  Accessed by this “learning trail,” light-filled classrooms alternate with administrative area and a series of open and covered porches that extend out into the natural woodlands beyond.

The building’s predominantly all-wood structure and wood finishes with minimal use of concrete and steel, minimize its embodied carbon and maximize its carbon sequestration. The project designed and built in wood - with mass timber structure, light frame wood framing for non-load bearing partitions and deck structure, wood flooring and decking, stained wood siding, wood windows and doors – will be a “building as a teaching tool” that demonstrates the potential of locally sourced wood and locally manufactured wood products as a sustainable, low embodied carbon solution for our future.
Passive design principals such as butterfly roofs with operable windows and low energy fans, south facing porches and covered exterior corridors provide ventilation and shading and minimize dependence on air-conditioning and limits the area of conditioned spaces to those that are absolutely necessary in humid Alabama climate.