Brazilian Rainforest Institute
In this studio, we investigated both a habitat and the properties of color. The habitat options were the Arctic, Sahara or Amazon, all “monochrome” habitats. I chose the Amazon rainforest with green being the predominant color and also chose red, its complementary color, to explore in my design and research. After extensively researching the rainforest, I chose a site in the western frontier of the Amazon in Brazil in a small town poised for development called Cruziero do Sul. The facility would house a research institute which would conduct expeditions in the surrounding area, as well as a biological and zoological archive and a public exhibit space. For the color research I also looked into the area of biomimicry. In particular, the concepts of structural color and fractal cell structures influenced my final design. The building itself was organized on a regular 10’ x 10’ grid with modular framing, facade and roof shell units. The only conditioned space in the building was for the laboratory and archive space, which was formed as a vertical core. I designed a custom system of glass block to clad the core, as well as a perforated wood facade system and a concrete column formwork.
