Building an aesthetic, functional, and social focal point.

Part of a summer CityStudio class, this project began with the garden’s masterplanning among a team of students and a group of avid gardeners calling themselves the Woodland Community Garden Group. Upon completion of the masterplan, we broke into smaller groups. My team was tasked with the design build of the garden storage shed.

Our goal was clear: we wanted to build an aesthetic, functional, and social focal point for the garden. It is at once a stage, a classroom, a shelter, a monument. Sun studies influenced our design in elevation, balancing our desire for monumental scale with ensuring sun exposure for nearby garden plots. In plan, we opened up the gridded logic of the masterplan layout to the adjacent communal open-space. Translucent food-safe polypropylene sheathing allows for durable interior daylighting and dramatic nighttime illumination, and naturally char-preserved cedar clads the exterior, chemically free.

Design Teammates: Brendan Callander, Stella Chung-Boyland

Press: Archdaily; Architectural Review, TED Books' "The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings" by Marc Kushner.

Photo cred: Dave Delnea