squished

Prompt: a student housing building, mid day happy joy, students streaming throughout the inner courtyard, contemporary southern california design, , the primary wings of the housing complex sit above a rendered ‘plinth’. expressed through subtle treatments on the inner walls of vertical striations which complement the inner organization. These vary in hue from block to block to give identity to each wing. Like a vertical rythym of tree trunks, they are rendered to recall the adjacent campus jewel, it’s arboretum. The corners and edges of the form and complex are illuminated through public social programs and primary arrivals. At the terminus of the housing promenade, the roof of the dining commons and a ‘scarf’ of the landscape, conceptually pooling in from the arboretum, create a gateway to the inner courtyard. Porous, yet defined along the pedestrian promenade and fire lane. The dining hall is expressed three dimensionally, expressing arrival to parking and pedestrians while socially anchoring the open space. Like an object squished by the housing block stacked on top of it- it’s volume expresses a voluminous form that further enhances the student’s experience through campus, it’s primary open spaces and landscape….