WILLIAM SHEFFIELD ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO
CONTENT INTEGRATED | GYMNASTICS FACILITY US OLYMPIC TRAINING FACILITY
NEXUS | URBAN MIXED USE HUB
CASTIGLION FIORENTINO THEATER AND MIXED USE
REPURPOSE | SHIPPING CONTAINER CLINIC BOLIVIAN MEDICAL CLINIC
ABROAD | URBAN MARKET
CASTIGLION FIORENTINO URBAN FARMING AND MIXED USE
ANCILLARY | PHOTOGRAPHY
INTEGRATED US OLYMPIC TRAINING FACILITY
The Olympic Training Center is designed specifically for the US Women’s Gymnastics team to replace their existing facility outside of Huntsville, Texas. While current facilities meet their most basic needs, the camp-like feel does little to portray the image of world-class athletes such as the main US Olympic facility in Colorado Springs does. An update is crucial to the continued development and showcase of the program. The facility consists of central building and twelve individual housing units. The central building contains training gyms, locker rooms, a cafÊ, and administrative offices. The housing units are laid out in two configurations: a motel-like layout for senior athletes and a cabin-like layout to facilitate summer camps and junior athletes. All of these buildings are located around the main lake of the extensive site which served as a design factor itself for the facility. The uniqueness of this project came in its size and scope. The expansive site required careful research to determine ideal placement of the facility. The training center itself is over 100,000 sq ft and required extensive management to not lose sight of smaller details. The focus of the studio itself was to integrate structure and systems into the design, which developed an understanding of the etirety of what goes into a building complex in the creation of detail drawings, framing plans, and HVAC design.
The design for the main building came from a two-fold process. Functionally, the massing was split into four forms comprised of the three gyms and the support program such as administrative and cafĂŠ spaces. On the other side in developing the plan, the natural curved side of the lake formed a portion of the perimeter of a circle, from whose center radii were drawn to the edge. Along these, the forms created from the program were positioned so as to direct focus towards the lake. In keeping with the theme of engaging the lake, the west and east wings actually cantilever out over it and the middle plaza steps down to the water itself. The housing units also keep with this idea, in that their axes are directed towards the lake with a central plaza between pairs.
FLOORPLAN_FIRST
FLOORPLAN_SECOND
ELEVATION_SOUTH
SECTION_EAST-WEST
ELEVATION_WEST
A major issue in dealing with the form of the project was how to deal with the massive rectangular forms created by the gyms. The first part of this was making the rest of the programmatic forms work with the large 50 foot structures. A large lobby that served as circulation space as well as display space for Olympic banners and awards from competitions was created to span around and between the gyms. This not only connected the programmatic spaces, but also served as an intermediary form between the large gym forms and smaller parts of the building.
A
A The second issue to deal with was how to break up the traditional rectangular gyms. Functionally, the plan had to remain the same. In section though, the trusses that had to span the large space gave an opportunity for design. The solution here was to design a truss and roof system that not only broke up the form, but could serve a purpose for the gym space below.
B
B
GYM WALL SECTION DETAIL
The final design was based on a precedent used in the Rafael Arozarena high school in Orotava, Spain, which utilzed a curved truss with a suspended ceiling. The uniqueness of this though was that the truss seemed to cut through portions of the suspended ceiling. In the version used in the training center, three ceiling planes were suspended from the truss and had cutouts for where the truss would “pass through.� The reasoning behind this was not only to break up the large planar ceiling, but to work with a similarly shaped roof above to allow indirect natural light into the gyms. In talking with the current center’s administrator, the gymnasts prefer no direct light to interfere with their routines, but some sort of connection to the outside was also desirable. The clerestories created solved this issue as well as creating an interesting form.
GYM TRUSS DETAIL
FRAMING PLAN_FIRST
FRAMING PLAN_ROOF
RESIDENTIAL FLOORPLAN_FIRST
RESIDENTIAL FLOORPLAN_SECOND WALL SECTION DETAIL
SECTION_RESIDENTIAL
NEXUS THEATER MIXED USE
This first year Master’s project was completed in conjunction with a third-year undergraduate studio while I was the graduate assistant for the college’s Italy study abroad program. I worked with a team of three undergraduates and led design work, content creation, as well as managing other groups whose design I was not directly involved with. This mixed use complex is situated in Piazza Garibaldi, the main square outside the old city’s walls of Castiglion Fiorentino. The current site is a large vacant parking lot that is used as a thriving market on Fridays and the site of a horse race during the summer. It is located at a central inetersection of the town, where the old and new meet, buses depart and arrive, and the community comes together for festivals and markets. It is the optimal place for a hub to better accommodate the activities of the townspeople, as well as a perfect destination for outsiders to promote the town’s value and image in a decaying rural Italian culture. The program consists mainly of a 300-seat theater that can be reconfigured depending on the event, as well as the needed support spaces for actors, guest speakers, and workers. The rest of the main building is dedicated to rehearsal rooms, open workshop spaces, a concession bar, and offices. The rooftop floor also features an outdoor theater space that terraces down into the central piazza created by the two buildings. The second building is a combination of a fully-functioning cafe as well as dedicated market vendor spaces to better integrate the displaced market with the structure. The entire complex is built out at the perimeter of the site to create a large public piazza in the center to encourage people to use the space even when events are not happening. The piazza is vital in Italian urban development over its entire history and is a primary indicator of the life happening in adjoining buildings. The need for one here was crucial to the success of the complex.
LEVEL_0
LEVEL_1
LEVEL_2
SECTION_A
ELEVATION_SOUTH
ELEVATION_EAST
REPURPOSE
SHIPPING CONTAINER CLINIC Bolivia has the worst healthcare in all of South America. Our purpose is to design a medical clinic that can be easily assembled using standard shipping containers with minimal excess construction. The use of shipping containers will also aim to lower material and design costs as well as provide a very safe and durable structure in a country where most architecture is lacking. It will increase awareness of sustainability as well and hopefully inspire other projects featuring sustainability concerns throughout the city and surrounding region. The facility will be able to offer an encompassing variety of services to combat the healthcare problem in the country. It will primarily serve as an outpatient facility to assist heavily with short-term care. It will also house a dental clinic, something expected to be used heavily. Pediatric services will also be provided as well as a full surgical unit and accompanying inpatient care center. We also aim to create a space that is friendly and inviting in contrast with most medical facilities around the world. This type of design has been suggested to even help with the healing process. The Aiquile Medical Clinc’s facilites will include outpatient treatment and inpatient recovery units. A surgical suite will accompany a newborn/pediatric facility in two joined containers. A dental clinic will finish out the northern building. The southern building will house the outpatient, administrative, reception, and service facilites. Each of these has its own container dedicated to it, excluding reception and administrative, which share one. There is also room to accommodate guests who may accompay patients. Finally, an outdoor space will be a central focus of the complex.
The site is located just outside the city center of Aiquile, Bolivia, the capital of the Cochabamba Department. This city was chosen as an exhibition for the project because of its medium-large size as well as being a central location of the surrounding region. The location in the city allows for room for construction but still close enough to be within walking distance from the main part of the town. The climate is mild and dry the whole year, promoting outdoor usage and movement, which the facility takes advantage of. The two buildings shape around a plaza that contains recreation and education space.
The complex is comprised of seven repurposed shipping containers. Each container features a different function: in-patient, out-patient, dental, operation, triage, administrative, and staff service. This second-year project examined creative ways to repurpose shipping containers and as such paid more attention to development of spaces and creating an understanding of healthcare design. Our initial designs called for a more mobile-friendly layout with less additional construction and modification to the containers’ structure, but as we progressed, it became clear the importance of the project was not in exploring structure, but in introducing healthcare design and expanding design skills. Had this project been done in an upper-level studio, our focus would have shifted to developing a solution that kept the integrity of the containers’ structure but would have kept the same functions of each container.
FLOORPLAN
CONTAINER DIAGRAM
ABROAD U R B A N FA R M A N D M A R K E T
Located in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy, this mixed use facility with an emphasis on urban farming was developed while studying abroad in the town itself. In conjunction with the Milan World Expo focused on food, our research centered around the concept of the supermarket of the future and locally-based farming practices to provide for local communities. The project also sought to provide for future needs and made available implementation of future technologies such as smartphone features, interactive market shopping screens, and hydroponic gardening. The site itself is at the heart of the new town outside the medieval city walls adjacent to the much-used train station and within walking distance of housing and other commercial facilities. As such, it made sense to expand the program of the project into a more inclusive community center focused on education, training, and practice of locally-based farming and marketing. The existing building on the site was removed, but the grain silos presented a unique opportunity to tie back to the orignal complex as well as provide a function in developing hydroponic gardens. In keeping with Italian building traditions, the mass of the facility was stretched around a piazza space that acted as the centroid of the site itself. From this plaza, access to each function is simple and unobstructed, and allowed for multiple entrances to the site depending on the arrival of patrons from the rest of the town or from out of town via the train station. The building’s adjacency to the station makes it the first visible attraction of the town, standing as a memorable monument to Castiglion’s emphasis on local farming and innovation. The full program of the project includes the supermarket, two cafÊs, hydroponic gardens inside repurposed grain silos, greenhouse farms, rooftop gardens, classrooms, studios, and an exhibition space. The exhibition space features a massive glass envelope that allows light to the point of imitating outdoors as well as serving as a large mass that attracts patrons and ties the other buildings together at a firm corner. The bottom floor envelope is a solid wall that forces people to investigate the box itself through the rest of the complex.
FLOORPLAN_UNDERGROUND
FLOORPLAN_FIRST
FLOORPLAN_SECOND
FLOORPLAN_ROOF
PROGRAM MAPPING
SITE ANALYSIS
ANCILLARY
P H O T O G R A P H Y