design ii studio

Project for Design II - Foundations II at UTSOA.

This project was completed during my second semester of architecture school. It is a bird blind and birding education center on the Laguna Gloria peninsula in Austin, Texas. The central concept for this project was to connect the only existing structure on the site, a historic villa used as a gallery and event space, to the water through a clear axis. The program required a conference hall, gallery space, offices, and reception area and all of these structures are placed somewhere along the axis. Another central part of this design in that all structures are west-facing and required a specific solar shading and heat-gain prevention strategy in place. I solved this by designing a varying horizontal and vertical screen that would occupy the west face of the structures, limiting sunlight but still allowing visitors to see out towards the water.