studio chahar
Design Studio II: Community Boat Center
Keene State College. 2020 to 2021. Sophomore level. With D. Paley and M. Katz.
The studio reinforced design as an iterative process based on research, analysis, and synthesis, integrating fundamental design principles through a series of exercises for a community facility of approximately 10,000 gsf. The design project was a community recreation, fitness, and boathouse facility.
Water (rivers, lakes, and oceans) is embedded in the history of New England. Bodies of water are vital to the economic, social, environmental, and spiritual life of the region. Students received all the information about the site, and during the first few weeks of the course they worked in teams on the research and analysis of the site, program, precedents, and historical, cultural, and social factors related to the project. Upon completion of the research and analysis phase, each student explored and experimented with concept options by applying the principles and integrating them with the criteria developed from the analysis phase.
By the mid-term, students defined three options based on a “parti” or generating idea. In the second half of the semester, with the “bones” of the final design in place, students synthesized the concept options into a final design by continually referring back to the design criteria and generating ideas established in the first half. The program offers year-round recreational activities related to water, including aquatics, rowing, kayaking, sailing and stand up paddling.
