Close
Menu
Rules of Thumb, Broken
Undergraduate - Fourth Year Design Studio
Professor
Luis Santos
Project Brief:
Design a spatial structure with a clear tectonic, formal, and material strategy that embodies an effective answer to the challenges that climate change impose in the built environment, climate resilience and adaptability, and lastly occupant comfort at minimal energy cost.
Location:
Kent, Ohio
Square Footage:
83,000 rounded
Precedent:
Des Moines Public Library, David Chipperfield
Project Approach:
A focus on massing which is further progressed with challenges of an environmentally and energy efficient architecture school. My goal was to design spaces with continuous diffused light to supplement good design and morale no matter the location within the building.
The site of Terrace Hall is one that has a cascade up towards the East and down towards the West. This took my initial simple boxed mass and fanned it upwards, downwards, and outwards. The fanning motion was deciphered by shape grammar which created precisely arranged “fingers” and atrium spaces. The site at hand was also a divider between the large green field of the May 4th memorial to the South, and asphalt-consumed ground leading towards the busy Main street to the North. I decided the combination of organic life and man-made geometries was deemed fit in correlation to the hard North and soft South. The mass of fingers was to stay geometric and obtruding out of the ground, being consumed as it rose and fell by organic green roofs and nature. The geometrically heavy building is seemingly taken over by the organic greenery on its roofs, and starts to mix into one at the connecting moments of the northern and southern environments existing like webs to the fingers. These webs both figuratively and literally break the opaque building, granting moments of transparency and clarity as you move around the site or into the sectored program.
After further analysis, I realized the webs of these fingers were going to be the primary entrances into the building. Acting as the cracked exposure to the life within this shifting solid mass. These entrances were divided into exterior gardens and interior atriums in nod to the geometry of the fingers attached. Allotting for intertwining paths of travel while running in parallel to each other. The base of these parallel staircases took the shape of the area that once was floor plate, resulting in large stepped moments to rest and enjoy the outdoors (hidden from the harsh exposure of eastern and western sun).
The facade was decided to accentuate the mass shifting and rotating with the site in a minimalistic manner. Glass was chosen to take charge in wrapping the masses being inlaied with a sun shading device and integrating structure. The utilization of glass for the entirety of the building gave way to seamless connections, where the shift from hiding to exposing the life within occured (the webs). The introduction of thermo-bimetal fins to the design granted this exposure. These fins exist inbetween the panes of glass which make up the entirety of the facade and react to solar heat. When cold, these fins are in a downward position giving way to direct views of the exteriro and when hot, invert upon themselves to temporarily shade without cuttong off exterior views.
This building invigorates sensations and clear thinking with an abundance of diffused natural light, surrounded by lush greenery, exceeding normal expectations of studios, classrooms, and faculty offices. The main auditorium seems to be floating in a large cantilever grounded by its attachment to the submerging greenscape from the south promoting free thinking and learning. Studio spaces commonly enclosed by interior walls can now be taught in gardens at a moment’s notice. Faculty offices are privatized to their own wing with direct access to a designated roofscape garden for moments of escape. Overall, design solutions were challenged and integrated into one another to create an environmentally conscious and energy efficient building enhancing the daily lives of those who interact with it.
