STUDIO OVERVIEW
The Rich Computer Center building (1971) occupies a prominent location on campus, down the hill from Hinman and across 4th St from Architecture East. Yet it has remained hidden in plain sight since the 1970s. Now that the computers it housed have been relocated, many actors on campus have their eyes on this piece of prime real estate. The stealth building / stealth site is up for grabs. Our studio's challenge is to make a compelling case on behalf of the College of Design. Its location in the heart of campus is adjacent to many College of Design buildings and talk of a "Design Square" gives the case currency.
The design brief asked students to develop strategies for an expansion of the College of Design at this site that articulated a vision for design education at a technological institute. The organizing ideas emerged out of charrettes that focused on the site, possible programs, changing pedagogies, and architectural references. Students explored, in a series of "Postcards from the Future", the atmospheres and experiences their proposals would foster. And the architectural qualities, implicit in their proposals, were made tangible through sections at the scale of the site, the building, and the wall assembly.
Each of the three proposals that follow responds to the charge differently. The first proposes a strong form at the scale of the landscape, an addition that hovers over the existing buildings. The second proposes a new, temporary, tensile structure to house all the research labs within the College. And the third reconceives the existing building as a design hub for both the College and the Institute retrofitting it with carefully considered insertions and subtractions.