An Architecture of Sentient Beings

Projects Catalogue

The project catalogue highlights each of the twenty-nine projects undertaken by Gulf Coast DesignLab students over the past ten years. Listed in chronological order, each project entry highlights the names of participating students and teaching assistants (when applicable), paired with the client name and project location. Each of the twenty-six Texas projects is physically located on a corresponding project map, which can be found on the inner fold of this book’s back cover.

Each project is given a unique name. These names are collectively determined by the students and the outcome of an exercise given early on in the semester, prior to the start of their design work. While on-site for the first time, the students are asked to find a place to sit quietly and alone for twenty minutes (no earbuds, please) to reflect on what they are sensing. Using all their senses—not just sight—they are asked to make notes of their experiences, and then, to arrive at five action words that capture their reflections. (Occasionally, this assignment will be accompanied by an additional sketch exercise, a mechanism to further concentration on their locale and begin to build a relationship with it.) Toward the end of the studio’s design phase and when they are heavily invested in their project direction, each student is asked to select an action word that describes the chief active characteristic of their design. Once chosen, the students share their words, which are then discussed by the group as a way to find commonality of intent. From these shared words, the students select a name—typically one word but not exclusively—on which they can all agree describes what the project sets out to do. The outcome of this process are names such as cultiVate, moVe, hide, Frame, demonstrate and sustain, each with the intent of conveying a design idea through the power of words. AR+D

01 PARTING WALLS

Fall 2012 | South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center | Corpus Christi, TX Project Team: Elizabeth deRegt, Laura Edwards, Wilson Hack, Jena Hammond, Jon Handzo, Jaclyn Hensy, Jessica Painter, Molly Purnell, David Schneider, Greg Street, Tristan Walker. © Coleman Coker

Spring 2013 | University of Texas Marine Science Institute | Port Aransas, TX Project Team: Timothy Campbell, Todd Ferry, Garland Fielder, Matt Krolick, Jon Mautz, Lauren Mullane, Annie Palone, Katherine Russett, Jessica Zarowitz. © Coleman Coker

Summer 2013 | City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department | Austin, TX Project Team: Catherine Berry, Ana Calhoun, Brittany Cooper, Alessandra Figueiredo, Nicole Joslin, Cameron Kraus, Tran Hoang Le, Andrea Lewis, Jordan Teitelbaum, Riley Uecker, Carrie Waller | Teaching Assistant: Conner Bryan. © Coleman Coker

02 BLIND SIDED

03 PORTAL

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04 EXPANDED FIELD

Summer 2013 | City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department | Austin, TX Project Team: Casey-Marie Claude, John Cunningham, Kelly Denker, Brian Gaudio, Anna Katsios, Gordon Lee, Matthew Martinec, Marianne Nepsund, Nathaniel Schneider, Daniel Sebaldt, Allison Stoos | Teaching Assistant: Conner Bryan. © Coleman Coker

Fall 2013 | Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) | Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Project Team: Shelby Blessing, Danuta Dias, Shelley Evans, Andrew Houston, Lauren Jones, Kye Killian, Alex Krippner, Jorge Martinez Jr, Morgan Parker, Mitch Peterson, David Sharratt, Katie Summers. © Morgan Parker, 1 © Coleman Coker, 2-3

Spring 2014 | The University of Texas Marine Science Institute | Port Aransas, TX Project Team: Peter Binder, Sara Fallahi, Jorge Faz, Kimberly Harding, Christina Hunter, Yinrui Li (Nicholas), Barron Peper, Ryan Rasmussen, Shelby Sickler. © Coleman Coker

05 HEAVY WATER

06 DUNE

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FLOAT at sunrise reflecting off the wetland waters. © Evan Greulich

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GATHER FLOAT RISE STORE INHABIT OBSERVE SHIFT COOP

FLOAT

SPRING 2016

Location: Sea Rim State Park Client: Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Design Team: Director: Coleman Coker; Students: Nevin Blum,Michelle Cantu, Connie Chang, Claire Fontaine, Evan Greulich, Asher Intebi, Marissa Jordan, Estrella Juarez, Kelsey Kaiser, Kevin Keating, Amy McDonald, Ashley Nguyen, Raquel Royal Awards: 2017 Texas Society of Architects Design Award

Float, a first-of-its-kind camping platform for Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (tpWd), was constructed over four days of work by Gulf Coast DesignLab students, who assembled ten prefabricated modules in the wetland site. Nestled on the northernmost edge of the Texas Gulf Coast, Sea Rim State Park is a fragile, yet harsh landscape with 4,000 acres of wetlands along 5.2 miles of coastline. The area, located near the many petrochemical plants in Port Arthur, has seen a surge of development and pollution, loss of native habitat, and repeat damage from natural disasters. Hurricane Rita hit the park hard in 2005, then Ike came ashore in 2008, destroying park infrastructure twice within three years. When it came time to rebuild, tpWd called upon the Gulf Coast DesignLab to create a new, resilient amenity within the aquatic landscape.

The idea to design and build a platform campsite in the Spring 2016 semester developed from an initial conversation between Gcdl director Coleman Coker and Sea Rim State Park Superintendent Nathan Londenberg, who wanted to make the wetlands more accessible and draw visitors into the vastly underutilized area of the park. The floating campsite idea was unique, as it would become one of few “backcountry” camping opportunities within the state park system, which is dominated by drive-up “car camping” sites. While Float welcomes the public, the project was particularly attractive to Gcdl because of the scientists, bird counters, and biologists who could also utilize the platform for their investigations. The superintendent’s original program called for two campsites, one sized for four guests and one for two guests, to be designed in keeping with the park’s “leave no trace” policy, which required careful consideration of camping trash and restroom needs for overnight visitors.

Throughout the design process, students carefully considered how they would assemble the project within four feet of water over a few short days. To meet the extreme construction challenges, students would need to design and fabricate the structure on-campus in a componentized way; each piece could be no more than four feet wide for transport by flat-bottom boat in shallow water of the winding bayou leading to the environmentally sensitive site. Students also AR+D

Returning from their first field trip and visit to the project’s site, students begin their design work for FLOAT. © Coleman Coker

While preparing for their design work, students get an orientation from Sea Rim State Park’s superintendent. © Coleman Coker

Students camp on the beach in Sea Rim State Park as they prepare for tomorrow’s first visit to the FLOAT work site.

FLOAT students familiarize themselves with the local ecology by kayaking the area around their future work site. © Coleman Coker

FLOAT’s “mast” acts a way-finding device for kayakers moving through tall wetland grasses of Sea Rim State Park. © Kelsey Kaiser

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needed to be cognizant of the native alligator population when planning their onsite assembly and future use of the campsite; they even conferred with an alligator expert to guide their decision-making. Following a final design review and budget assessment, tpWd and the Gcdl team collaboratively decided to prioritize the larger four-person campsite and eliminate the two-person campsite from the project.

With less than $10,000 for materials and associated costs, the thirteen-student design team created a functional outpost and captivating marker within the delicate environment. Students fabricated multiple components on the ut Austin campus for transport by trailer to the state park and then by flat-bottom boat for a four-day weekend assembly on the water. With limited workspace, students took shifts assembling the prefabricated parts of the floating platform first, while the remaining students kept watch in kayaks for alligators. Once assembled, the platform—composed of eight floats and four weights to hold the campsite in place—then provided a working surface for on-site welding and assembly of the remaining pieces.

Visitors spot the tower, which acts as a wayfinding device, thirty minutes into a sixty-minute paddle from the dock to the campsite. The tower is wrapped in a semi-open wood screen of vertical members that accentuates its verticality, while creating an interior of sorts. The students were deliberate in their shaping of a vertical form that might reference the oil rigs not far from the park’s coastal shore in distant Port Arthur, generating questions about the region’s environmental health and industrial players. The tower also provides privacy to visitors using the campsite’s basic toilet, which requires a conventional five-gallon bucket that visitors bring back to shore for emptying. Exposed steel rails, recessed within the platform’s surface, allow for tents to be easily tied down in wind. Raised horizontal rails around the platform’s perimeter keep alligators from climbing onto the platform surface and act as a delicate register against the water. Through its materiality and form, Float successfully draws out the inherent contrasts of place as a dynamic gesture within the protected landscape.

Since Float’s completion in May 2016, the public can experience the beauty and uncommon quiet of this wetland wilderness atop the platform. Campsite reservations can be made through tpWd on a first-come, first-served basis. In Fall 2016, two adjustments were made to the project: a customized “crown” was added to the tower to combat its use as a cormorant perch and the increasing volume of avian excrement; and welded steel components were added to each of the four concrete anchors to increase the project’s weight and resistance to movement caused by strong winds. In Fall 2017, Float went offline for four weeks following Hurricane Harvey. The campsite was pushed nearly one-half mile from its site into the adjacent preserve, yet it escaped damage. Float was returned to service with help from preserve staff and heavy machinery borrowed from nearby McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge. The back-country campsite has continued to see steady use, averaging forty reservations per year, largely AR+D

Middle school students at FRAME share their impressions after a walk through the coastal prairie at Galveston Island’s Coastal Heritage Preserve. © Mary Warwick