MRKa

AIA NC 2008

AIA NORTH CAROLINA HEADQUARTERS DESIGN COMPETITION The responsibility of designing a facility that represents this profession is an opportunity to express to the community what an architect is capable of accomplishing within a reasonable budget and typical site conditions. Our design is derived from the form of the land, the flow of traffic, the fall of water and the movement of people as they are given the rare chance to walk up a building. The basic parti is two sweeping arcs – one that follows the site curvature on the west along Wilmington Street and the other that leans in to accept the parking lot. The east façade funnels the visitor and user to a breezeway that slashes through the building to the corner of the site and the pedestrian’s point of entry. On the east wall, two tall cylinders house the elevator shafts. One of the shafts is brick, harkening to the industrial past of North Carolina mills and fabrication with their masonry chimneys; the other is a steel clad form which ‘remembers’ the agricultural silos of the region. The building burrows into the natural slope of the site and rises up to the north, opening itself up to Peace Street and symbolically, to the future of architecture. Another interpretation could be the emblematic sectional topography of North Carolina from the wave of the Atlantic Ocean coastal plain to the Piedmont Plateau to the rise of the Blue Ridge/Appalachian Mountains. The form that is distilled is heroic, dynamic and iconic which becomes a landmark presence. The sloped, terraced side offers southern sun in microclimates protected by raised parapets with view slots and shaded with trellised brise-soleils. Each of the floors has a balcony and/or rooftop garden that could be grass-covered so that the building becomes an extension of the park and invites the public to explore it. The upper two levels are restricted to use by AIA – for privacy and security reasons. As a physical and symbolic gesture, the walls of the building lead southward to an arched, curved pedestrian bridge over Wilmington Street reaching and connecting to the legislative mall. The east and west walls are heavily insulated with deep shaded, slotted window ribbons. These walls also have areas in which large banners can be hung announcing various important AIA or community events. The north face allows maximum light with a regularly-gridded plane of curtain wall glazing that leans out over the walkway creating an interesting tension as well as an entry point for the public. Inside this face, which is naturally daylit, are display and exhibition areas for passers-by to enjoy as a billboard for architecture. The upper floors include a library and offices for the employees. The construction is budget-conscious but still unique as an instructional tool which can inform the general public about the process of design and construction. The primary material is autoclaved aerated concrete blocks (AAC) for walls, floor and roof panels with cylindrical concrete columns, steel beams and concrete topping slabs on the green roofs/terraces. The AAC walls are covered with a waterproof membrane and an aluminum sub-frame which holds a rain-screen material that will vary from steel panels, perforated metal, cement board, vegetation screen… - depending on the finished design. The finished floors are raised above the AAC panels and serve as an electrical and data plenum. The contour of the site is largely to remain intact as the building digs into the hill and the parking lot to follow much of the natural slope. Rainwater on the building will be diverted from the roof down runnels in the wall parapet and stored in subterranean tanks and reused for irrigation of the site and gray-water for the toilets. Similarly, rainwater on the parking lot will be sheet-drained into inlets and also stored in those tanks. South facing roofs will support solar panels for electricity and heat. Trees shade the site as both the parking lot and building become a community park and gathering place.