Among the Trees

University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Project idea

The concept of this project began by looking at how African vernacular architecture uses the landscape to their full advantage. Furthermore, thats where this project began, by mapping out where the trees are, analyzing the contours and strategically placing each building to optimize the user experience.

Furthermore, the forms have this organic shape to them as they are supposed to give the expression that they are weaving in and out of the trees while moving in and out of the ground.

Project description

In order each program is such: #1 Hall of Excellence, #2 African Continental Museum, #3 African American Museum, #4 Library, #5 Language Institute, #6 Music Conservatory.

We individually focus on a singular building and I chose the conservatory.

The circulation is outdoor and covered by a canopy roof that covers the markets and vendors that are placed along the path.

Technical information

The auditorium is a two floor space, and like mentioned before is open to the nature. The space-truss system is then panels with glass so remain as open as possible. The intention is for African, community made fabric to be place on the inside of the structure to serve as a shading device. This invovles to surrouding community in the building of this structure and creates an experience with even the construction of this project.

The focus is on the Music Conservatory. The shell is a space-frame truss system of which functions as an open shell to house the conservatory function on the inside. It oriented away from the wind and is open to nature. This allows for an extremely blurred line between the ourdoor and the indoor while providing the users with a sheltered, outdoor, auditorium experience; an experience unique to this area of the world.

Another way the building interacts with the surrounding environment is it sits on a concrete platform of which is placed on top of the water to introduce that aspect of nature into the building. Furthermore, the trees are also well integrated in the design, hence incorporating all 3 major elements (wind, water, trees) deeply into the design of the structure.