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Design Team: R. Ahmadi T. Walter C. Thomas
13 INATURE Competition WATERSHED PATTERNS
| San Diego, CA
CLUSTER RELATIONSHIPS
SITE CIRCULATION
PROGRAM ORGANIZATION
Tidepool Interpretation Centre at Cabrillo National Monument
The tidepools present a diverse community of sea creature and plant life at the intersection of land and sea, connecting us to some of the rarities of Earths largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean. The coastline at Cabrillo National Monument displays a narrative in which a slowly eroding coastline creates fragile microenvironments of sea life. Occupying only a small portion of California’s coastline, tidepools occur in the intertidal zone between the high and low tide limits. Due to seasonal tidal swings make the view of tidepools drastically different depending on the time of year visited. The continuing changes within the site orients the eye towards the pools and the ever changing California coast line. In response to the site’s dematerializing edge condition, the design approach stitches the delicate coastline together with the programmatic spaces of the nature centre. By locating the centre slightly uphill from the cliff edge, the natural habitat of the tidepools is preserved while maintaining a clear connection for the visitors to the site. The visible strata of the site can be followed into the forms of the building to fortify the connection between the natural and built forms. The gestural approach of the building forms are drawn from the slanted rock formations that protrude dynamically from the cliffs. The programmatic functions are then discovered under the portions of the raised landscape as the visitors journey from the entry area to the tidepools. In this way, the project affords an experience akin to inhabiting portions of the coastline landscape at a human scale (alluding to the sea creatures occupying tiny crevasses in the rocky pools below).