ARCHITECTURAL AGRARIANISMRESEARCH CENTER

Entree

Grass

Sun-Energie

GROUP 6, TEAM C

This research facility serves as a place for the unifica-tion of man and nature. The main building operates as a welcome center for guests who would like to learn more about the forest‘s surroundings and also holds a dormitory for scientists who are conducting research, long-term and are staying on campus. There is also an auditorium for presentations, various offices, and public restrooms.

There are four outlying buildings, three of which hold research centers for Native American Studies, Over-fishing, and Hydroelectric power specific to the nearby Fontana Dam. The fourth building houses all vehicles that are used by the research team for traveling to other places around the forest.

This facility not only boasts the most up-to-date techno-logies for all research teams, but these technologies are all powered by “green” energy. The building is sustaina-ble by running on solar panels stationed on the rooftops of each of the buildings as well as hydroelectric power from the nearby dam. The parts of the rooftops that do not have solar panels are covered with farmland, which helps regulate building temperature, increases sustaina-bility, and provides food for the resident research teams.

This agrarian architecture is very important to all aspect of the building and continues past the line of the buil-ding onto the side of the mountain and incorporates the two. Stone from the surrounding area is used for some of the walls of the structure. Glass siding is used for the remaining walls and allows for natural lighting to be the primary light source as well as keeping the view of the surrounding forest open, further uniting man and nature. On the main building, there is an observation deck that can be used to see the outlay of the research center, and the view of nature all around. The objective of this design is to bring together humans and nature. Establishing a research facility in the middle of untamed nature explicitly does this, proving this is the optimal solution. The buildings were designed to unite the two through something made by man- the structure itself as well as the angles of the structure and organi-cally- through the use of materials and the way the buil-dings are set into the mountain rather than just on top of them. Because of this combination, the rooftops are accessible to all people and animals and can be walked on and explored because the building itself has become part of nature.

NANTAHALA NATURE RESEARCH FACILITY