Urban Waters Research Station

This research station will be one of many stations arrayed along the water’s edge from Tacoma, WA to Victoria, BC. These stations will host artists-in-residence and scientists-in-residence to live and work together for 3 to 6-month stays in order to get to know a particular place and its links to the wider waterways of the Puget Sound. The research station provides artists and scientists time, space, and equipment for this purpose. During their stay, the residents will be traveling to and from the site primarily by water. At the station, the residents will be collecting samples, crunching data, contemplating the sunrise, running experiments, arguing about models of ecology, composing poems, discussing the future, listening to the rain, and compiling reports. The station is not a public facility, but the remainder of the site will be open to the public so, although controlled access to the research station is not required, some consideration should be given to providing the scientists and artists with the relative seclusion they need in order to do their work. The research station needs to be both practical and particular, embedded in the site through the careful and evocative placement of boundaries, thresholds, processions, and volumes of space.

ARCH 501: Foundation Studio II
Instructor: Peter Cohan, Claire Rennhack
Narrative
Artists and scientists are brought together in Magnusson Park to conduct research out in Lake Washington, but also to gather and respite. The journey of these residents begins at the crack of dawn when each scientist and artist wakes up to a view of Lake Washington. They then head down this deck along the perimeter of the dwelling to reach a pathway that is oriented towards the lake. The pathway begins compressed between the walls of the dwelling on the right and the communal area on the left.
As one progresses down the pathway a view of the meadows and the forest surrounding the research station is revealed. It then becomes hidden once again behind the board-form concrete walls as one gets closer to the workstations. The artist enters the studio through a threshold between the wall, then opens to a large, softly lit space where a sequence of beams run across the walls. Their shadows, ripple down the side of the textured walls repeating in a manner towards a large steel-framed window at the front of the studio where artists gain inspiration for their work.
On the other side of the pathway, is a laboratory space that houses that same repetitive sequence of beams. Only this time, the beams are opened on the north end allowing for direct light into the space highlighting the work and repetitive motion of the scientists as they seek to discover. Coming out of the workstation, one must tread down the pathway in order to gain access to the water.
From afar, one can see hints of the boatshed, until they reach a set of stairs that brings them down to the shoreline. The boatshed is then revealed tucked inside the earth in which the artist and scientist take refuge by putting on the protective equipment that shields them from the elements. Coming out from the boat shed and onto the pathway, they walk down the wooden dock to enter their boats and conduct research out in Lake Washington.
Coming back from the water, the research site begins to unfold between the trees. As they dock their boat, they then seek refuge within the boatshed. As they ascend up the stairs, this time only moving laterally away from the pathway, concealed behind a grove of trees is a series of light passages that transport the person beneath the water. At the end is a meditation space where one sits down looking up toward the rhythmic movements and the crashing sounds of the waves.
Returning back to the pathway and moving toward the dwelling for respite as the sun slowly sets on the horizon. At the break of dawn the next day, this repetitive journey of circumambulation down this pathway becomes more deliberate with each precession.
Presentation Board
1/32" Site Model
1/2" Tectonic Model
Hybrid Perspectives
↑Back to Top