Structure

My design is something of a triptych, three variations on a theme– in language, form, material, and structure.

The Prairie speaks in a language of planes, horizontal planes of grassy ecoroofs and long, heavy rammed-earth bearing walls run from the structure out into the landscape beyond. There is a Wrightian feel to the space, evocative of the midwestern Prairie Style in form, but more spare and modern in detail. The bearing wall system is structurally simple, allowing for an easy expression of stepping roof forms without complicating form.

The Savanna draws on the canopy of the characteristic Oregon White Oak for formal inspiration, resulting in a domed form over the commons. This has been a subject of much debate among myself, my professors, and my reviewers. Should it be a classical dome– structurally efficient and formally pure– or should it deviate, as a split dome, two nested half-dome forms– more structurally complex and less formally striking? The idea of having a rather large domed structure over the space that could be a mere four inches thick is doubtlessly enticing, but I worry that a pure dome is too pure for the otherwise somewhat quirky nature of my design. I think that a broken dome could be very spatially interesting, while diffusing the overtly classical quality of the domed space– after all, I’m not trying to recreate the pantheon, but rather evoke an oak canopy.

The majority of the structural discussion was focused on the Forest section of the design, the large, double-height space that houses the library and Forest small learning community. This part of the building is meant to evoke the form of climax coniferous forests, populated by tall fir and hemlock trees. In response, the structure is a series of steel moment frames, laid on a radiating grid, whose columns reach up to the peaks of the folded roof plane (rather than the more conventional approach of ending at the valleys) to emphasize the trunk-like nature of the columns and the coniferous canopy-like quality of the roof. My reviewers were very helpful in informing me that a folded plate roof structure could perform as a diaphragm– without which, my structure needed to be absurdly reinforced between each frame. Additionally, we began to look at opportunities for the unique structure to create interesting rooftop raingardens and cisterns that doubled as thermal storage.