CARVE & CONSTRUCT
Location: Charlottesville,VA
Course: ARCH 8020 | Spring 2018
Instructors: Luis Pancorbo, Ines Martin
Aiming to find the balance between the needs and the wants, affordable and the niche, carved and the constructed, The west addition for the Campbell hall provides an attainable scheme while acknowledging the changing definitions of architectural education. this exploration resolves itself in a hybrid: a building both the factory and the school. the emerging archetype for architectural education. thus defines a central open space for the school and a new face,acknowledging its context and defining its presence at an institution in its bicentennial.
Rooting from a careful examination of the almost 40 years long formation process including the 2 additions of the school of architecture building (Campbell Hall), the project’s structural character further supports the dialogue between the school and the “addition”, preserving the character of existing buildings and providing necessary programs. The west addition project, plays out the relation between the stereotomic and the tectonic1, the carved and the constructed. Project renovates the existing west wing and creates new studio, classroom and collaboration spaces by stacking programmatic boxes on a new pre-cast base. With consideration of the budgetary concerns and continuous academic activity of the school, the project is designed to be completed in phases. Construction, starts with the “carved” programs on the existing part of the west wing and continues with the “constructed” programs which is comprised of the new spaces added on top of the existing west wing.
A structure cutting along the southern axis of the building serves as the buffer between studio and faculty offices and make up the circulatory spine that build the fabrication-studio connection. This structure act as the western face to the school for visitors approaching the campus and take in the view of the Blue Ridge mountains. A reminder to students that they are located in a historic campus within a regional context, but able to reach out and think globally.
