Sublime Tectonics: The Living Building Challenge on Georgia Tech Campus
Project Description
This proposed Living Building Challenge certified student center, entitled Sublime Tectonics, generates a park-like atmosphere and fosters a new “hot spot” on the northern edge of the Georgia Tech campus, which lacked a conducive area for students to socialize, study, and collaborate. The site design re-establishes the historic topography, creating a new wetland area as a nod to the creek that once existed.
Based on the created topography, the ideas of rich composition, wonder, complexity, and discovery manifest themselves in the Living Buil¬ding. Looking to natural formations as massing strategies, dramatic spaces that manipulate scale, light, and texture take form, creating a strong dynamic between intimidation and playfulness. Spaces prompt fascination with the relationship of interior and exterior and the framed views to the landscapes beyond. This interaction between the building and larger site programming is carefully calibrated to create a stronger correlation between the two. Through this approach, the spectator commences a journey of serendipitous sensations as they wind throughout this new community-oriented proposal. Each journey through the site and the building will always be a different one.
This exploration of sublime spaces maximizes the human experience. As one moves deeper into the building, sensational identities of each space initiate a transcending state of mind. Within this environment, the ethereal – the otherworldly – dominates the atmosphere and emulates a state of total relaxation and concentration for students, faculty, and guests experiencing the space.
