There is nothing like the joy of being in nature. To share that joy, our mission is to preserve the natural area at the Klamath Basin for future generations and create a building to bring visitors. The Klamath Basin is a fragile ecosystem, in danger of water shortage, land development, invasive species, and pollutants, so the building must have as little impact as possible. A low impact building means a building that collects all its energy from the sun, all its water from the rain, and recycles the water it has used. Low impact also means using a small area of the site, consolidating the buildings into one long building, minimizing the land disturbed while maintaining views from the spaces. A low impact building blends in with the landscape, minimizing the visual blemish on the pristine landscape. The Border School fuses with the landscape, touching the ground to give attention to tiny details of the land, and rising up revealing wide expanses of wetlands, uplands, and distant mountains.
Building Form
The site has rich biodiversity in habitats ranging from uplands in the west to wetlands in the east.
Visitors should experience this range of habitats, but scattering buildings across the site will heavily impact these habitats.
Aligning the buildings together minimizes the site impact, while still being near each unique habitat across the site.
Each space alternates orientation, switching views from north to south, and allowing the spaces to have ownership over their front porch and surrounding land.
Front porch roofs are lifted and lowered to blend the building into the landscape. This creates a range of interior spaces from tall extroverted to low introverted spaces that relate to the program.
The resulting roof shape becomes occupiable space for theater seating, native plant habitats, aquaponics systems, and wetlands views.
A roof that varies its slope allows for a range of interior spaces that enhance the experience of the users. A higher roof can make gathering areas such as conference rooms, living rooms, classrooms, and dining halls more open, while a lower roof can make individual spaces such as bedrooms and work spaces more comfortable and intimate. A higher roof opens the views of the expansive wetlands landscape, while a lower angled roof focuses the user towards the nearby plants and micro-habitat.
An occupiable roof creates spaces for outdoor gathering, and forms seating for campfire activities and outdoor classrooms. The roof slope can be formed to create areas for play and climbing, drawing the campers outside and making them active explorers of their environment. Plants that grow in nearby uplands can be displayed on the roof to teach campers about a wider range of local flora. The slope of the roof can be used in the aquaponic water treatment system, using gravity to let the water filter down through the system.
Building Plan
Energy & Water
The building is self-sufficient in its energy and water systems. Solar energy is collected through PV panels on the roof and stored in batteries at the ends of each building. Water is collected from rain on the roof and channeled down along the roofline to collection areas that combine with the gray water from low contaminate uses such as bathroom sinks, to be treated in the aquaponic filtration system. Black water from kitchen sinks and toilets flow into additional filtration and treatment systems before joining the gray water in the aquaponic filtration system. When the water leaves this treatment system it is ready to be used again and is stored in water tanks at the ends of each building.
Building Performance
The building is constructed using a primarily cross laminated timber structure, which is not only a low carbon footprint construction material, but allows for rapid on-site assembly, minimizing the construction impact onto the site. All excavated soil will be reused onsite to lift the building above current grade to minimize the risk of flooding.
The building is clad in Accoya rot resistant wood siding, wrapped in a continuous layer of rock-wool insulation, and all cavities are filled with recycled cellulose insulation. The additional amount of insulation reduces the need for active cooling and heating systems throughout the year.
The building is oriented east-west to take advantage of the southern sun, while minimizing glare in the late evenings and early mornings. The roof overhang blocks the summer sun from heating up the building, while allowing direct light in the winter to illuminate and warm the interior. Radiant floor heating is used as a low energy heating system in the winter. In the summer, window openings allow for passive cooling through ventilation.
This project placed second in the 2021 Cavin Family Travelling Fellowship Competition.