Yale’s Living Village welcomes its first student residents

SOURCE: Yale News
AUTHOR: Mike Cummings
DATE: August 25, 2025

This last month, Yale’s Living Village’s became home to its first students.

The dormitory was designed to meet the seven principles of the most rigorous sustainability building certificate, the Living Building Challenge (LBC). To achieve the certification, special consideration had to be made when choosing the complex’s building materials. Any materials used had to be determined safe for all species throughout time.

The exterior of the hall is clad in TerraClad® panels manufactured by Boston Valley Terra Cotta. Terra cotta is a natural material with lower embodied carbon and waste than other common building materials– helping the residential complex meet its sustainability goals.

Designed to evoke the quadrangle’s brick façades, the Living Village’s main walls sport a reddish-brown throughbody color, while the entry portals contrast themselves with a white glaze. The entry portals were designed with a custom scalloped extrusion die that was installed on angled walls and soffit.

“Yale’s Living Village, a state-of-the-art residential complex designed to give back to the natural environment more than it takes, has emerged as a key component of the Yale Planetary Solutions initiative and the Yale Divinity’s School’s (YDS) growing focus on eco-theology.” – Dean Gregory Sterling as quoted in Yale News

To learn more about Yale’s Living Village, continue reading here.