Drawings
The Biotic Diffuser intends to answer more than one question. It intends to embrace the site’s nature as a collector – of sunlight, rainwater, and people – and awaken its potential as a diffuser, incorporating utilitarian yet elegant daylighting strategies, water distribution cycles, and strengthening the sense of community by providing space to dwell. It seeks to rigorously engage persistent issues of the region and site in innovative and responsible ways – passive cooling, water reuse, phytoremediation, and energy efficiency. It does not seek to introduce resilience, as Allensworth is a town where resilience is one of the foundational principles and driving forces of its spirit of place, but to reinforce its resilience, providing a locomotive for economic production and cultural vibrancy. It also seeks to seamlessly incorporate design strategies that enhance placemaking and aesthetic delight.
Axon
Site Plan
PlanThis intervention honors and encourages the community, providing them with an example of a well-crafted, well-sited project that inspires them to improve upon, or at the very least, see the poetic qualities of the spaces they already inhabit. The project intends to ennoble the local typologies and produce an architecture that brings a dignified poetic dimension to the everyday that tells and adds to the story of Allensworth and its lasting resilience.
The structural system allows for flexibility of program, and its elemental, repetitive nature allows for the potential of future expansion. Its transparency and honesty as a system enables its daily users to understand, diagnose, repair, and replace components, connecting the users to their space and retaining a sense of agency common to rural communities.
Practicality and elementality are heavy focus points from the outset of the design process. Built elements are designed to accommodate expansion or reduction, and can operate well with a flexible range of programs. Material choices draw from the logic of local native plants: their hardiness and ability to survive with low amounts of water allow them to live abundantly in Southern California. CLT, steel, fiberglass, and polycarbonate are lightweight, low-maintenance materials that are efficient in construction, maintenance, and longevity. Steel joints are simple, with bolts used rather than welds whenever possible, to allow for simple replacement, addition, and dismantling. Floors and walls slide into the structural system, allowing for simpler end-of-life processes. Helical pile foundations touch the earth lightly and can be simply installed and removed.
The structural system allows for flexibility of program, and its elemental, repetitive nature allows for the potential of future expansion. Its transparency and honesty as a system enables its daily users to understand, diagnose, repair, and replace components, connecting the users to their space and retaining a sense of agency common to rural communities.
Practicality and elementality are heavy focus points from the outset of the design process. Built elements are designed to accommodate expansion or reduction, and can operate well with a flexible range of programs. Material choices draw from the logic of local native plants: their hardiness and ability to survive with low amounts of water allow them to live abundantly in Southern California. CLT, steel, fiberglass, and polycarbonate are lightweight, low-maintenance materials that are efficient in construction, maintenance, and longevity. Steel joints are simple, with bolts used rather than welds whenever possible, to allow for simple replacement, addition, and dismantling. Floors and walls slide into the structural system, allowing for simpler end-of-life processes. Helical pile foundations touch the earth lightly and can be simply installed and removed.
Teaching Section
Residential Section