The ACHUO design competition challenged entrants to propose what a campus living center (a dorm/student union) of 25 years from now could be.
I participated in this last year with a Ted Givens, Gang Wang and Brian Watson, a group of from Little's Durham office. While there are many interesting aspects of this project, I am limiting this post to the highlights of the landscape design.
Our entry consists of two bent bar buildings separated by an exterior courtyard and bordered on the edges with water cisterns, filtration ponds and an apple orchard. Water is collected throughout the project, taken through a filtration process and reused on site.
The buildings units all open on to an inner courtyard where a series of bio-swales and event cubes- wooden crate-like objects used for various functions- set the stage for the many activities that occur within the college campus.
During the fall, new students arrive in the middle of a hub of activity around the annual apple harvest and sale. Student residents share in the cultivation, harvesting, and selling of the crop. The intent is to promote social and educational interaction among the students through this combined effort . The surrounding community is also invited to participate, broadening the reach of the design to more than just the college.
-Ryan
2 comments:
Ryan,
The project looks awesome. The second water color perspective gives me a good sense of the space between the buildings. The crate objects are a nice addition with their green rooftops and evening lantern possibilities. Do their forms have to be those regular boxes? It might be nice if their form relates to something within the site or responding to the buildings surrounding them.
Sweet.
Thanks, Matt. That is a good comment about the forms of the event cubes. The thought was for them to be distinct from the building by making them pure geometries. Now after hearing this I do think that they could benefit by being linear and maybe even curved. This take it past being too crate-like. Very cool.
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