When future visitors stroll through the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, they’ll have little idea how much of their physical comfort depends on what’s underfoot. A special floor slab will house an exotic heating and cooling system that will variously circulate hot or cold water throughout the museum to regulate the indoor temperature according to the seasons.

But the floor won’t be the only environmental regulator. Streaming sunlight from an all-glass, west-facing wall will enter the space to help heat the interior and create buoyant layers of air and comfortable surroundings for guests.

This intricate dance of temperatures and air currents hasn’t been left to chance. Engineers are spending months pouring over sophisticated computer models that forecast the temperatures at every point within the building for each season of the year, and for specific times of each day. The environmental model has became an essential component of the design process.

Read the entire article at Architectural Record.