A building that talks back: CCHRC research and testing facility to be completed this summer.

• Author: Hebert, Jack
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA - Cold Climate Housing Research Center

A building that tells you what it's thinking. It sounds unlikely, but that's just the kind of building that's under construction on the south side of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The $5.2 million Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) testing facility structure, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2006, is both a test laboratory and a demonstration facility. We're using cold-climate construction products and techniques from the foundation to the front door, and the walls to the windows. It's more than a headquarters and product-testing facility for the leading extreme cold-weather housing research center statewide, it's a living, breathing lab with a wealth of information built into the structure.

Committed to developing and advancing healthy, durable, and economically sound shelter for people living and building in the north, CCHRC has been conducting research and development since its inception six short years ago. However, our research needs quickly exceeded the laboratory space that was available in Fairbanks. As a result, CCHRC formed partnerships with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Fairbanks North Star Borough to build the Cold Climate Building and Infrastructure Research and Testing Facility (RTF) on the UAF campus on Thompson Drive. The RTF is envisioned to be the first resident of a future UAF Research Park.

Lab space isn't all we hope to accomplish. We need a facility that will use the most current arctic construction techniques and test them over time in a real-world setting. We have 380 sensors testing everything from the moisture content of the walls to the slightest shift in the foundation. A classroom in the building will serve as the nerve center for monitoring these sensors, treating visitors to an interactive display of what's happening in the different components at any given time. It will also allow scientists, contractors, and do-it-yourself homebuilders to see how these techniques and products are holding up in the Fairbanks climate--from 40 below to 90 above.

The testing facility will have two sections: an environmental lab and a structural lab. The work we do in the environmental lab will focus on product development and testing. The lab will be equipped with an environmental chamber, allowing us to create extreme conditions at any given time. Imagine being able to create...