Moundville Archaeological Park Community Pavilion

Back to Our Roots

March 2, 2022

Spring has sprung, which means Spring Break is quickly approaching! But before we hang up our overalls for a much needed break, we’ll be cranking up production on the Moundville Pavilion project in preparation for the mid-March Executive Review.

Gettin’ Conceptual

A big part of our decision-making process has been based on the refinement of the project’s concept. We went back and looked over our initial reading and analysis of the site and the previous team’s design to better articulate why we were making our decisions.

diagram explaining concept of reflection and blending — This diagram explains the concept of reflection and blending.

Our concept starts with the desire to not be an object on the landscape, and instead be more a part of the landscape by taking cues from the surrounding forest and blending in. By doing so, we give reverence to the site and work to draw the eye away from the pavilion and instead focus it on the surroundings. The pavilion is also all about the gradient that is found in a forest of trees, going from a heavy, sturdy base, to a light canopy that reaches to the sky and lets light touch the ground below.

drawing looking at gradient created by surrounding landscape — This drawing depicts the gradient created by surrounding landscape.

Reviewers, Mock-ups, Drawings, Oh My!

The design has been gradual and ever changing in conjunction with the last revolving door of reviewers we’ve hosted for the month. We had a short visit from Larry Scarpa, from Brooks + Scarpa based in Los Angeles, CA, who gave a lecture and questioned the team on how the project can be more cohesive from top to bottom. Mike Newman of SHED Studio and Katrina Van Valkenburg of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CHS), both based in Chicago, IL, provided input on the column design dilemma and asked the team to build quick and easy mock-ups of all of our column ideas to better understand their implications.

presenting to mike and katrina — The team presents the latest work and mock-ups of the columns during Mike and Katrina’s visit.

mocking up columns — The team presents the latest work and mock-ups of the columns during Mike and Katrina’s visit.

Finally, we had Dan Wheeler from Wheeler Kearns Architects, based in Chicago, IL, come out and take a look at how the project’s details have been progressing. Dan encouraged the team with his knowledge of the various ways we can detail the pavilion and how to embody the points of our concept. Dan led a charrette asking the team to take a step back and draw the overall concept with relation to the park, while also zooming in to the various ways we can have the column details emphasize the heavy-to-light design.

The team studied various concepts of ground-to-ground and column-to-ceiling connections.

+ February views around Hale County

side of the road near Whitsitt — Whitsitt, AL

y Lakes Park birding tower — Whitsitt, AL

Tags: 5thyears, charrette, details, moundville, moundvillepavilion, pavilion, rs5thyears

I Once Was Lost But Now I’m Mound

February 16, 2022

The last couple of weeks have been busy for the Moundville Pavilion team, with the revolving door of visiting guest reviewers, a mock-up, and structural meetings.

Looking Up!

With the arrival of our pool tarp material, it was time to utilize the partially built pavilion and to mock-up the ceiling form. With the help of our fellow 5th-year Hailey Osborne, we made quick work of the mock-up which ultimately provided some much-needed perspective on the experiential quality of the proposed form. Seeing the slightly dull material for the underside of the pavilion confirmed the team’s desire for a more reflective surface that will blend the pavilion in with the surrounding environment.

Some of the team observes light quality on the mocked-up ceiling.

Stood Up!

With the continuation of our meetings with Joe Farruggia, Rural Studio’s Engineering Consultant and Visiting Assistant Professor, the design began to evolve with the structural needs of the pavilion. Replacing the columns meant the opportunity to question the design of the columns, including their connection to the trusses as well as the ground. The first decision the team made was moving from a 3-ply system to a 5-ply system, causing the columns to widen and subsequently blend more with the surrounding tree trunks.

Secondly, the team decided it was important to make all of the columns vertical, contrasting with the previous design that incorporated angled bracing members. This vertical design provides a more porous plan from covered to uncovered areas and takes away the provisional nature of the diagonals. By taking out the original A and V column system, the necessary lateral stability was absorbed into the roof form, enlarged footings, and stiffer columns.

rendering of new 5-ply columns — The new 5-ply design features all vertical columns.

rendering of pavilion with original 3-ply diagonal columns — The new 5-ply design features all vertical columns.

Meet Up!

Over the previous weeks, Anne Marie Duvall Decker and Roy Decker (from Duvall Decker Architects in Jackson, MS), and Tod Williams and Billie Tsien (from Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Partners in New York City, NY) spent time discussing and providing constructive insight on the design. Duvall Decker helped the team think about the connection points of the columns and their constructability. This conversation led the team to develop a steel connection between each truss and column that allows for less risk of misalignment.

The team meets with Anne Marie Duvall Decker and Roy Decker.

The team created a drawing exploring the new column-to-truss connection.

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien zoomed out from the details and urged the team to strengthen the conceptual ideas of the project. This clarified the goals for the design and propelled the team forward with confidence in the direction the design was headed. We left ourselves with one question: How can you be of the surrounding landscape, without being the surrounding landscape?

The team meets with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

Tags: 5thyear, 5thyears, moundville, moundvillepavilion, springsemester

The Mounds Are Calling and We Must Go

February 3, 2022

Meetings with Joe

Reporting from Hale County, the Moundville Pavilion 5th-year student team members—tasked with designing and building a pavilion and surrounding landscape on a historic Native American settlement site—are back after a restful holiday season and are ready to roll. While we were away, the team met with Joe Farruggia, Rural Studio’s Engineering Consultant and Visiting Assistant Professor, via Zoom and assessed the integrity of the existing pavilion structure. Due to the structure being left alone for so long and not being a fully tied system, the current columns and steel plate connections need to be replaced with a more robust design. Joe shared his plan for replacing the columns and plates and led the team to start developing new dimensioned drawings to work from.

Zooming in, Zooming out

Once we all got back to Hale County, the team started digging deeper with a more zoomed-in approach to designing. This led to creating new detailed drawings, playing with furniture design, and rendering a 3D model to play with materials in a more accurate way. The detailed drawings include the edge condition and the exploration of an outdoor suspended ceiling plane that mitigates the current misalignment of the bottom ridge of the trusses. The ceiling material should be something that reflects the surrounding landscape while also helping to bounce light into the space underneath.

section detail of edge conditon — The students created a section drawing exploring dropped ceiling detail.

digital model view from entry — The view seen when entering the pavilion.

digital model view from back — The view seen when entering the pavilion.

“Neckdown” Week!

To kick off the Spring semester the Studio had its traditional “Neckdown” Week, in which students, staff, and faculty worked together in an intensive volunteer week, tackling small projects across the county. The team had a group of helpers out on site moving plywood off of the scaffolding to prepare for upcoming mock-ups and construction. Some pieces were no longer usable due to water damage, but we managed to save 63 pieces for future use. A huge shout out to the 3rd-years and our fellow 5th-year Daniel Burton for helping us!

students moving wood during neckdown — Students move wood down from the scaffolding.

students storing wood during neckdowns — Students move wood down from the scaffolding.

Next up (literally): A ceiling mock-up on site to test out the proposed ceiling material.

+ January views around Hale County!

tractor outside of owl barn — Inside “Owl Barn”

sunset view at redbarn — Inside “Owl Barn”

Tags: 5thyears, moundville, moundvillepavilion, neckdown, springsemester

A Post Roast Toast

December 13, 2021

Howdy! The end of the semester is here! The Moundville Archaeological Park Community Pavilion team presented their latest work at the Rural Studio’s Annual Soup Roast. In preparation of the big event, the team spent some time cleaning up the site and envisioning what the space could be and where the boundary of the site should be. After narrowing down their designs, it was time to meet with the client and introduce them to what they had been working on all semester and get some feedback. Discussing the possibilities of their proposals and walking through the site with the clients left them energized and more confident moving forward.

Soup Roast!

The day of Soup Roast, students, faculty, staff, and guests bundled up and rode in a caravan to Moundville first thing in the morning. This year was a little different, as smaller, more in-house event, but still a celebration of the work done this semester by all the students. For our guest reviewers the Studio welcomed back Seattle-based architects and builders, Joe Schneider, Kim Clements, Nicole Abercrombie, and Jake LaBarre. AU professor David Hinson, and the Front Porch Initiative team, Rusty Smith, Mackenzie Stagg, and Betsy Farrell Garcia, were also able to join and provide helpful feedback for all of the projects.

We started in the orientation building at Moundville Archaeological Park to present the project and then headed to the site to discuss more specifics of the design. The two proposals showed iterations of the addition of a ground platform and roof aperture, including some initial ideas about ground surface and materiality of the pavilion. Afterwards, we got to relax and hear what the other teams have been working on while patiently awaiting a DELICIOUS soup dinner at the end of the day made by Chef Catherine Tabb.

Gettin’ Serious

The day after Soup Roast, Joe, Kim, and Jake continued the project discussion with us and provided some much needed feedback, helping us get more of a direction and understanding the scope of the project. Playing with the surrounding landscape helped us understand the impact of our ideas within the pavilion. Now, it is time to zoom in on the pavilion and learn as much as we can about the structure!

See just how zoomed-in we mean in the next Moundville Pavilion team blog!

Tags: 5thyears, fallsemester, moundville, moundvillepavilion, reviews, souproast

Design, Critique, Repeat

December 2, 2021

Hello from the Moundville Pavilion team! We have been busy in design mode since our last blog post. After taking the feedback from Halloween Reviews, we took a step back to assess what we have learned thus far. Doing so helped us to develop our design goals for the site: utilizing the existing site elements; incorporating a sense of discovery; and creating a unique place for park users.

We have chosen several areas to focus our design including: an aperture through the pavilion roof; a raised platform; a ground surface; plantings; a fire pit; and a cooking space. Identifying certain activities allowed us to quickly charrette various design schemes for the function of the pavilion.

During these past few weeks, the team has also been meeting with a number of consultants to get some fresh eyes on our new iterations and help us practice presenting our narrative including Amanda Loper of David Baker Architects and our very own professors Emily McGlohn and Chelsea Elcott. In conjunction with the design work, we also met THE Joe Farruggia, (Rural Studio’s structural engineer) who gave us a structural design workshop and helped us develop a plan for the current conditions of the pavilion.

Next up: Soup Roast Reviews. Stay tuned!

Tags: charrette, critique, design, goals, park, pavilion, site