3rd Year Partner Project with Kira Collins
Duration: 18 weeks
Norman, OK
Main Concept
The form and development derives from two main conceptual areas studying the properties of the existing site and a conceptual approach to circulation.
Building Placement
Through an extensive site analysis, the ideal placement of the building was decided through the existing conditions. Positioned at the top of the hill, it is able to receive the best views, optimal breezes, and efficient access from the parking lot, street, train tracks, and park without creating too much congestion or conflict with nature.
Circulation
The approach, entry, and exit was crafted as a bigger journey, so that the building would slowly unfold itself to the inhabitant as he/she moved through the site from various starting points. At the same time the circulation types (bus, car, bike, pedestrian) were sorted in a way that they would no longer conflict with each other. Overall, they were kept separated, but then weaved them into each other as they journey towards and through the building.
Building/Structure Development
The main structure is a concrete shell positioned on the major axis of the site, cut down the middle to introduce light and define spaces of rest and spaces of movement. Lighter steel rods wrap the building and penetrate the concrete to mediate the connection with the outside and define ancillary, subordinate volumes of space (the food truck pavilion, the bus pavilion). Inside, the concrete recedes to expose the tectonic connections between the steel and the concrete. Another volume collides with the main structure where all the paths meet, providing a sense of hierarchy, and is oriented along the most beautiful axis in the park, opening up to allow people to disperse off the path into the landscape.