2016 Design + Build
Rock Bottom Discovery Pavilion
Project Information
Clients: North Carolina Museum of Art, NCMA
Location: NCMA Sculpture Park
Size: 864 SQFT
Program: Create a garden shed and outdoor classroom space of museum quality for the grounds of the NCMA Sculpture Park. It shall serve as the headquarters for the NCMA volunteer gardening crew where they store supplies and host events in the Discovery Garden
Materials: Steel, Concrete, Shou Sugi Ban charred wood
Students: Jeromy Clements, Bryan Davis, Daniel Floyd, Jake Heffington, Matthew Hirsch, Mo Lin, Rhian Lord, Sarah Lower, Scott Nelsen, Gabriele Seider, Eli Simaan, Jennifer Smith, Kristen Warring, Emily Wood, Zenchao Zhang, Joel Lubell
Instructors: Randall Lanou, BuildSense; Erik Mehlman, BuildSense; Ellen Cassilly, Ellen Cassilly Architect; Joel Lubell, Teaching Assistant
Instructional Collaborators: Scott Metheny, BuildSense
Structural Engineer: Diane Thompson, PE, Stewart Engineering
A new grove called the Discovery Garden was proposed as part of the NCMA 2016 exterior renovations. The museum aimed to create a space that would foster education and hands-on learning for children. The Design + Build Studio was invited to execute a garden shed and outdoor classroom. The project needed to be structurally expressive, functional, safe, accessible, family-friendly, and durable. The museum was also interested in a rainwater collection feature, both for watering plants and for exemplifying how is collected and drains. Over an 11 week period students designed and built a canopied space with a concrete sitting wall connecting to a corner shed with charred wood siding. The pavilion’s distinguishing feature is a dynamic concave roof that optimizes rainwater collection distributing it to a rock and rain garden below.
Project Images
