Staged Ecology
Situated in the Pineywoods of Lake Conroe, Texas, this project for an ecology center focuses on regrowth and rebuilding of ecosystems through biodiversity in flora. The project draws inspiration from the surrounding environment, exploring repetition of line, integration within the landscape, and the building as a mechanism for viewing natural processes.
The project is organized by four greenhouse volumes, each housing a different stage of ecological succession seen in the forest due to natural and prescribed wildfires. A large pathway cuts into the landscape, allowing the laboratories and offices to remain underneath the greenhouses and allowing the glass prisms to exist alone on the landscape. The repetition of the Y-frame timber structure allows the glass to fade away, mimicking the shadows and effects of a dense forest while a new one grows beneath them.
The forest regrowth within the greenhouses is set out sequentially which allows the visitor to progress through the program with the natural process they are observing. The building becomes a mechanism through which natural processes are staged and observed, invoking the idea that while the building inevitably decays, the forest continues its growth. The ecology center explores the rigid control available of viewer and object in contrast with the general nature of the environment.
Spring 2016
Spring 2016