Architecture 100C | UC Berkeley | Fall 2018 | Instructors: Mark Cavagnero, Ben Golze
Creating connections at all levels is the central aim of this design for the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. At the scale of the site, the project strives to bring life back to a historically significant yet dead block in the heart and intersection of the city’s civic and arts areas. The design for the arts school is centered around the desire to build connections between the past and the present, arts and traditional school programs, students and the greater community, and the site and its urban context.
The school is centered around a large atrium space which is intended to act as space of visual connection between all programs, to facilitate communication, and to provide a kind of interior urban space in consideration of students’ safety. On the courtyard side, the massing of the school steps down to the open space in order to break down the building to a more welcoming scale. This massing also provides classrooms with access to balconies on each level, promoting connection to the outdoors. On the Van Ness facade, the new addition pulls back from the old one in order to both respect the historic building and make use of this roof space.
In materiality, the addition aims to create a connection with the historic through contrast, highlighting the historic facade while being completely different. The operability of some facade systems can heighten the students’ connection to the building and the surroundings.
