Master of Science

The intent of this project was to develop a method of making architecture which incorporates into its design the unique features of the site and region. The site was chosen because of its unique physical features and strong regional character. The ideas of the layering of the walls was derived from the strata of a nearby bluff. The form of the building, a series of parallel walls, was an interpretation of the natural architecture of the region and the site. The curved wall that terminates the path through the building originated as a response to the meeting of a stream and the river. Out of this project came a building design that developed from the site in an incremental way. The architectural elements respond to the site through their individual form and structure, then as a collective whole. / Master of Architecture

Architecture cannot target only a particular age group or type of person worthy of its attention, but rather must respond to the entire human condition. I chose to design a project that would allow me to consider architecturally the span between birth and death, with both segregated and interactive spaces for the various age groups. The site echoes the human condition in complexity—a steep, wooded slope partially encircling a flat open area, separated by a large, flat stream, further disrupted by a tiny, steeply falling stream. Located on the outskirts of Newport Virginia, the project is a small, self-contained community intended to relate to the existing town in spirit as Le Corbusier’s La Tourette relates to the nearby town of Eveaux—felt and glimpsed but not seen. The building is organized around a series of major concrete walls, paired for circulation and containing volumes between the pairs, spaced in multiples of two and three. These walls are oriented to the geologic strike of the rock beds, perhaps the most permanent of all site qualities. Bridges link portions of the project on both sides of the stream, and the center is carved out to form an open plaza; a microcosm of the valley and surrounding ridges which make up the landscape. / Master of Architecture

Master of Science