Kathryn Burgess, Peter Curtiss, Emily Davis, Tristan Govreau, Peitao Huang, Gabriel Onderdonk, Diego Pereda, Marco Rossi, Jacob Schiesser, Lauren Sharpe, Morgan Temkin, Charles Zajeski  |  Instructor: Marcel de Lange, Assistant Clinical Professor

ENVD 3100 Spring 2019 Praxis design build studio ( actual build will happen this spring 2020 )

For this project, we were tasked with designing and building an art installation for the Boulder Office of Arts and Culture in the University Hill Neighborhood. The site we selected for this project will be in Beach Park, in Boulder Colorado. The University Hill Neighborhood has such a diverse community with many families and students living nearby, so our main focus was to create an inclusive installation that could unify this community. For this project, we design an interactive pavilion called the Community Living Room. The project was conceptualized, designed and iterated by 12 Environmental Design Students, this installation was then critiqued and redesigned with feedback from key stakeholders including University Hill Neighborhood residents, various local artists and designers, the University Hill Homeowners Association, University of Colorado students and teachers, the Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, and the Department of Parks and Recreation. Through several rounds of community-orientated presentations and neighborhood engagement activities, our design team and key stakeholders helped create the key elements going the Community Living Room.

Objectives:

  • Creating a piece of public art that engages, supports the community and distills community engagement outcomes.
  • Programming that revolves around community place making.
  • Needs to be up for 5 years with likelihood of being removed and ‘leaves no trace behind’
  • Prefabricated in shops and assembled on site.

Design Challenges:

  • Lasts for a minimum of 5 years
  • Easily disassembled in 5 years
  • Mostly fabricated off-site and easily assembled on site
  • Should include seasonal programming
  • Needs to serve all members of the community
  • Cannot exceed budget Boulder Office of Arts and Culture

Design Solutions:

The Community Living Room:
An interactive parametrically modeled pavillion

Our radially and tessellated structure is a raised anomaly in Beach Park. It will be raised off the ground about 10-15’. On the ground plane we will have three access points, seating, and a stage structure. We have created a large pavilion structure with program surrounding community engagement and gathering. We designed an oculus structure that is visible from all angles at Beach Park. This structure has an inclusive design that will welcome any one in the Boulder community to enjoy. With stepped seating and a stage structure we want to encourage the users to stay and enjoy the site, plan program activities, have group meetings, and make the site their own.

  • Note: The project was designed in the Spring/Summer 2019 and submitted for permitting. The construction of this project is projected to be complete in Fall-Summer of 2020.

Special Features:

  • Interactive lighting.
  • The LEDs will be programed to increase brightness as the goes down.
  • The LEDs will have animation display each hour.
  • A stage for events
  • Wooden seating oriented around three access points
  • Parametrically modeled radial pavilion with aluminum fins