The Environmental Forestry Education Center grapples with the sustainability and educational implications of its program in conjunction with the characteristics of its site—Collier Point, Providence RI. The project examines how to integrate the program into an industrial landscape hosting distinctive features such as storage tanks, flood-control berm and a power plant. It explores the ways in which these dichotomous elements are alike and aims to employ simple building components to enhance their relationships and deepen the experience of visiting the site. To further this mission, the project considers the gradations of permeability: from public to private, inward- to outward-facing and interior to exterior spaces.
The first floor is made of stone and built into the berm
Because the berm acts as protection against flooding, there is no program on the ground floor to the east side of the berm
The second floor is built above the berm with lighter, more permeable material
The private and educational spaces face inward towards the western courtyard while the nursery, greenhouse and more public areas are oriented outward and are more permeable, providing view and light access
The greenhouse receives direct southern sunlight and the labs and workshop have direct access to the greenhouse
To highlight the topography and elevation change of the site from west to east, the greenhouse foundation is built into the berm and then cantilevers both out towards the water and into the nursery. On the west side it fits into the nursery with a forest of supports that rise up from the ground through the facade to support the roof. To the east, it is anchored in the berm, reaching towards the water while becoming lighter and more permeable, similar to the piers.
I used the berm that runs north to south on the site as a generative idea. Not merely something immovable or just an edge, it denotes areas of protection vs exploration and varies the access to views. The berm itself takes flat land and gives it topography - suggesting the importance of levels. Each level of my scheme has different purposes and characteristics.
The forms used both emphasize and are reflective of the industrial forms on site.
The scheme is built into and perched on the berm with the main circulation along the top spine—maximizing views and creating a central axis of circulation that continues inside and outside.
I used the building components in relation to the existing site components to frame a variety of outdoor experiences. The nursery and educational spaces are on the “safe” side of the berm, creating an enclosed, inward-facing courtyard. The outward-facing seating built into the berm in the view-oriented, eastern courtyard emphasizes the social purpose of the eastern public space.
The northern exterior spaces follow this logic as well. The series of tables on the west side of the berm are enclosed by the nursery, while the eastern tables look out to the water and India point park.
The berm controls sight lines and directs the flow of movement through the various levels. The approach begins on the west side in a place of safety and then adventurously climbs up the berm to look over the river. The entry sequence takes you under a portion of the building that is stretching both out towards the water and into the nursery, balanced on the center of the berm.
The entry space highlights the solidity of the stone retaining wall built into the berm. The double height space allows the solid stone wall to be lit with natural light from the skylight.
As you progress through the building, you pass through indoor and outdoor spaces and the glass walkways that fall between those conditions. I also played with the gradation of permeability through use of varying slat rhythms.
The experience of indoors to outdoors changes as you circulate through the building. The public spaces, especially the circulation, are more permeable while the private or quiet spaces are more enclosed with less view access.
The cafe shows the interplay between the interior and exterior in a public area.
These images show the relationship between inside and outside and the continuums of natural to industrial as well as the generative function of the berm. The way these relationships play out creates a different experience on the first level vs. the second level and the east or west side of the berm.
This example highlights the extent to which the berm inspired the building and the idea that the building is growing out of the berm.
As you circulate through the building the views open up and you ultimately arrive at a large public area with terraces and seating along and down the berm.
In addition to cues from the site I wanted to emphasize elements and materials that align with the program of nursery and of an environmental education center. Embodied carbon in buildings is 11% of greenhouse gas emissions each year. For this reason, I opted for stone and wood instead of concrete and steel.
More conceptually, the materials mimic how a tree grounded in the earth gets lighter and less solid as it moves upward. This gradation from natural materials and very earthy dense materials to more light, glass and wood slats adds to the circulation journey through the building.
