Key Elements of the Proposed Project

Faculty Office Space

Currently faculty at TCAUP have much smaller offices than other schools and colleges at UM and are for the most part without windows. As enrollment has increased and the faculty/student ratio has improved, an urgent need to accommodate the increasing number of faculty has developed. The proposed addition includes a mix of shared and single-faculty offices, all with operable windows. Their placement in close proximity to studio space provides greater contact with students and encourages informal interactions among and between faculty and students.

Instructional Space

The increased enrollment has created a strain on instructional space. Phase I will add a classroom and a seminar room. This space would be adjacent to the architecture design studios and faculty offices for maximum efficiency.

Studios and Work Space

The design studio experience is the heart of the design programs, providing space for one-on-one instruction, critiques, reviews, juries, informal collaboration, homework, and social interaction. As a result, they are used 24/7, particularly at the middle and end of term, when students spend up to 70 hours a week there. The college is proud of its rich and vibrant studio culture and is committed to maintaining and enriching it.

The current studio space covers 3/4 of an acre and contains workstations for about 450 students in 32 studio sections, making it the largest design studio in the country. It was reconfigured in 2003 to maximize critique/display spaces and desk capacity. Wireless internet access is available throughout the Art & Architecture Building, and all the original desks from 1972 have been replaced.

Reading Room/Library

Ever since the college's library collection was moved to the basement of the Duderstadt Center across Bonisteel Boulevard, faculty and students have requested a more convenient, pleasant, day-lit place to browse and read books and periodicals. This mini-library would not in any way replace the extensive collection available at the Duderstadt Center but would supplement and sometimes duplicate the most popular and most frequently required resources of that collection.

Sunrooms and Solar Wall

One of the most compelling facets of this project that contributes greatly to low energy consumption are two sunrooms and the solar wall. The signature south wall of the project, which is purposefully stretched out east to west to receive and trap maximum radiation, provides direct solar gain, especially in winter when the sun is lower in the sky. It is louvered to protect it from the higher rays during the summer. Dramatically, most of the south wall opens to the outside, allowing fresh air and stunning rooftop views to the Arboretum. There is a roof deck off the reading room for al fresco events. In addition, the south wall is designed to be kinetic and a test bed for new energy technologies. Passive solar heating chambers in winter reduce the classroom's and reading room's heating load. In the summer, the system provides natural ventilation and cooling.