VIRGINIA SOCIETY AIA COMPETITION 2015

As a two-day competition, the program calls for a wind farm designed as a public work of land art. Situated on a mountain ridge-line in Eagle Rock, Virginia, a wind turbine array is to be placed along the ridge. In conjunction with the wind turbines, several structures must be created to include a museum, ampitheatre, education center, observation building, classrooms, exhibition room, cafe, bathrooms, and parking.

The proposal works with the architectural mediation of two differently scaled experiences: the landscape of the wind farm and the human scalein relation to discrete elements within the larger construct. The form of the wind farm was born from the study of wind forces, with a circular organization of buildings that flow outward and face various wind turbines along the mountain ridge. The building program was also organized radially, allowing one to experience the embodiment of wind flow.

A tall, open space was created for the exhibition hall(top), with a 150’ life-size propeller blade on display. Following the direction of the blade, one is led out to the front of the hall, with an unencumbered view of a wind turbine in the near distance.

The radial form of the buildings spiral out from the center, where an open ampitheatre is situated (left). The directions of the buildings project out toward the wind turbines.

Inspired by studying wind forces, each building is shaped so that the concept of air flow is embodied in the dynamic form (right).