• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.53-63
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• 2014

Caltech's Linde-Robinson Laboratory was originally built in 1932 featuring a Spanish mission-style design, whose function was to facilitate a solar observatory with a coelostat solar telescope dome and a solar shaft extending from the roof to more than 36.58m below the ground. The building has now been transformed into a cutting-edge center for research and instruction in global environmental science that retains its original character while setting new standards in energy efficiency and green design. It is the first LEED Platinum lab in the USA for renovation of a historical research building, consuming only one-sixth of the energy that the lab's comparable laboratories do. This work introduces various energy and environmental strategies hired for its sustainable rehabilitation and, especially, examines the functional validity of solar telescope daylighting by a coelostat. Observations were made on the llumination of underground floors, where illuminances of 40~50 lx were measured.