National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Where pure function becomes art

New York Times : The idea that net zero energy use is not only attainable but also affordable and even elegant is meant to inspire builders and architects of the future. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new hyperefficient office building in Golden, Colorado, serves as an example. The $64 million research support building opened last year as a kind of physical assertion by the US Energy Department, the lab’s parent agency, that office space can be driven down to zero net energy use through a combination of on-site energy production (rooftop solar) and fanatical attention to detail everywhere else, writes the New York Times‘s Kirk Johnson.