PROJECT NARRATIVE

reAWAKEN is an initiative that sheds light on the need for preserving woodland space and ensuring native species prevail. Today land is sought after for development. This engagement is usually destructive, but after enveloping ourselves in this project we discovered a need to establish a mutual relationship between architecture and the landscape. If we can embrace the landscape for what it is, then the embrace can be returned. Located on Westbrook Artists Site in Winterset, Iowa, reAWAKEN reflects the wisdom of this place through materiality, addresses ecological degradation through architectural functions, and emphasizes land ethic through the intentional site selection.

The space serves as a facility which supports the education and removal of invasive species. It also features a water channel which flows through the landscape to the main building and subsequently to an outstretching rain garden below. Facilitation of these programs is ideally located in a transmission line slot as it reveals the dramatic topography of the land, serves as a symbolic break in the landscape, represents the epicenter of invasive expansion, and acts as an ecologically responsible site for human interruption.

Co-inhabitation with the land requires a light hand, reAWAKEN seeks to gently restore unused barn and corn crib materials and local ecology simultaneously. Restoration is a process which involves the intersections of a multitude of lifespans whether those be biological or physical. The integration of materials, people, and plants elevates architecture’s relationship with its environment and enables the seamless transition from sky, to architecture, to earth. In the process of reusing materials, our project moves to reawaken the land and restore the woodland space. A harmonious landscape is a powerful force which carries fuel for growth as it does not commit energy to parasitic flora. This process of cleansing gives new life to this scarred plot and allows for it to awaken again.

Growing With The Seasons

Managing the harsh and unpredictable weather of Iowa’s distict seasons required considering how rainwater, drought, intense sun, and wind would affect the intervention. A semi-subterranean stucuture helps regulate temperatures without need for active systems, and nat ural ventilation draws cool air from the valley below through the building and out exhaust chutes.