Doin' good in the neighborhood.

The Challenge
The Architect’s Week design-build tradition at Tulane has students design and build an installation within one week. The program and site are revealed at 5pm, Friday and must be done the following Friday at 5pm within the constraints of a very tight budget. The challenge was to renovate the side yard of the Katrina-affected Luscher Elementary School and animate the space for the kids. Because the work would happen at a time when children were present, minimal work could happen on sight and thus, had to be modular or transportable from the School of Architecture.

Parti + Design
The program came from interviews with students, parents and the principal of the school. There was no shade in this side yard and was very difficult to enjoy during the hot Louisiana days. Additionally, the space was connected to the cafeteria and children would often sit on the steps to have lunch. The design was to create a space for children to play and socialize. The simplicity of the design arose from serious limitations in money while working in such a large site. The design was pragmatic, yet elegant. The shade structures were high enough to dissuade adventurous climbers and details considered tiny, wandering hands.

The final design was simple, almost zen-like. Trees were planted so that over time, more shade would be provided and the stone garden was to allow kids to comfortably sit and socialize. Ironically, a stump of a storm ravaged tree that was difficult to remove from the site was returned as additional seating (which from we learned is favored by the popular children).

The Result
The design and build was completed within the one-week time frame and when the principal walked out, she could not believe such a task could be done for $5000. Additionally, kids started using the seating immediately after we finished as after school care was just beginning. One second-grader immediately said “We have shade!” and parents present were extremely happy. Returning a week later for their lunch, it was used as expected with students colonizing each seat-grouping with their clique. The school community has been overwhelmingly positive.

A representative from a construction company, who was also a donor, was impressed by the level of detail considered and thought the use of tubing to cover the all-thread was a great way to mitigate warping (versus the lack of similar details on a build they were doing at the moment). Representatives from the university’s Student Government were also impressed that students could do this in a week from beginning to end.

The work was also featured in Architecture for Humanity’s digital newsletter in September, 2008.

The Team
I want to give great credit to the team as it took the efforts of many people to put this together in a week. I especially want to congratulate and thank my fellow “principals” in Kim and Dave, our event coordinators, Andrea and Greg and our wonderful group leaders. Kudos, team.

Information
Architects' Week 2007
with AWeek Team
Lusher School, New Orleans
Visiting Critic, Wendell Burnette, AIA
Budget: ~$5000