Establishing sense of place in an urban desert wasteland : reconsidering traditional design materials in contemporary building

honors thesisCollege of Architecture + PlanningArchitectureErin CarraherA reconsideration of traditional and sustainable construction materials should not only be encouraged in the contemporary age, but should support the establishment of a more engaging spatial experience, culturally and ecologically. Traditional building and design materials preserve the local character of a place, as well as sustain historical and cultural connections with the landscape. For example, the traditional building materials of the Hohokam Culture in southern Arizona (300 B.C. to 1800 A.D.) included caliche-rich adobe, as well as mesquite tree wood, desert brush, and desert grasses for the structural frame (Bartlett, Kolaz, & Gregory 23). Adobe was used in home assembly, and is considered today to be a highly sustainable construction material in southwestern regions. It is also a passive means of keeping a building cool during the summer and warm during the winter. If used in contemporary construction, adobe would have local and historical significance, as well as a low embodied energy. Therefore, Yucca and Agave fibers, which were traditionally used in the textile crafts of the Hohokam, will be explored as a material that embodies similar local and sustainable qualities to adobe. Local materials, textile traditions, and 3D modeling will be considered in relationship to a hypothetical library hybrid located on the Gateway Community College Campus in Phoenix, Arizona. The library hybrid will act as both an extension of the existing library on campus, as well as a community resource providing classes in traditional textiles arts, fashion design, and computational design. The classes will help establish a sense of community and place through group craft and contemporary modes of fabrication and design. Local resources frequently used in traditional textile arts, such as Agave and Yucca fibers, will be explored and re-implemented in the design of the building façade via programs that will quantify and account for the inherent variability of organic materials. Programs, such as Rhino in combination with Grasshopper plug-in, will have the potential to balance material variability with overall building system performance and longevity. Explorations in textile arts, the concept of "the weave", and contemporary computer modeling will influence the overall form of the library hybrid, as well as the program