Becoming the Storm

Confronting the Quad: Preserving Campus Housing to Accommodate Current Needs

The focus of this design project is to rehabilitate the UNCG dormitory, Cotten Hall, by adaptively reusing it as a multifunctional, “live-learn” residence hall. While the site will primarily be a residence hall, it will also accommodate a coffee shop, class rooms, community spaces as well as a performance space. In an effort to understand the interplay between historic preservation, systems and users, the rehabilitation of Cotten Hall will serve as a case study for directive design through the adaptive reuse of historic dormitory buildings. Providing a variety of student living spaces will allow students to become more attuned and connected with their environments as well as their larger communities.

Technology and functionalism have disconnected people from their environments, creating a society that is ungrounded and disconnected. Architectural design and historic preservation, each with different goals and foundations, can be put to good use to create and enable active community building for these societies. In this case, I am looking specifically at the college community. Although the demographics of the ‘typical college student’ have changed with varying backgrounds and ages, the need for community is a tie that binds throughout.

This design project will utilize several design and preservation theories, as well as architectural philosophy, as the underpinning of the rehabilitation. Precedent studies from different universities, as well as rehabilitation projects from around the world, in combination with the proposed rehabilitation plans through UNCG Facilities Design and Construction, will guide the designs.

Theory

Rehabilitation of historic buildings is a way to breath new life into buildings that have become obsolete or under used. Designs for the reuse of a building or structure should communicate values, sense of place and identity as well as offer an architectural dialogue between the past and future. In the context of rehabilitating an historic dormitory, it is helpful to take cues from the existing design to educate the new design. This studio will look specifically at how the design of the old dormitory, thought to be inadequate for current student needs, can be reworked to become not only relevant but actively engage students in their community.

With the choice for rehabilitation of the dorms, it is important to understand the values of the undertaking and its direction. Reworking existing buildings for new uses, or in this case similar uses, is a longstanding practice. Rehabilitation emphasizes the cultural value of a building, but can also serve as an architectural narrative conveying continued significance through time.

The Secretary of the Interior Standards for Rehabilitation is responsible for establishing standards on the preservation of historic properties listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Rehabilitation is defined as "the process of returning a property to a state of utility, through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those features which are significant to its historic, architectural, and cultural values."

Rehabilitation

In Brooker and Stone’s text, “ReReadings: interior architecture and the design principles of remodeling existing buildings”, the author suggests three strategies for rehabilitation; Intervention, Insertion and Installation. An intervention is when an existing building and its modifications are so intertwined that they cannot exist independently. Insertion is when new autonomous elements are introduced but are defined and contained by the existing building, and Installation is when the existing and new elements are independent of one another.

For this studio, a combination of Intervention and Insertion will be used, maintaining the integrity of the existing dormitory buildings, while introducing new architectural language and flexible spaces.

Value

In terms of preserving architecture it is important to acknowledge the diverse transformations it has developed over time. Both discourses about the past and future of architecture must coincide to make a successful intervention in cultural heritage. Professor of Architecture, Manuel Martin-Hernandez offers that in order to reconcile these two terms, we must spell out the values that define the heritage in question; then by de limiting the scope of the intervention meant to preserve and invigorate it.

Alois Riegl, in his pivotal text “The Modern Cult of Monuments”, provides a clear systematization of the values attributed to monuments over time. The most obvious value when referring to cultural heritage is the "age value," which appreciates the past for itself, preventing any intervention from happening. On the contrary, "historical value" is inherent in the object's capacity to "represent" a particular time in history. To these we may add a third value, that of "Contemporaneity," which may in turn be divided in two: an artistic value and use value. The former was defined by Riegl in his theory of kunstwollen (artistic will) as relative, characteristic of each time, and therefore subject to a certain suspension of judgment. The latter referred to the monument's utilitarian capacities, affirming that the only way to safeguard our cultural heritage was to put it to use. It is in this sense that design interventions can be understood.

Recomposition

Conservation can learn from design in that intervention must be understood architecturally according to space, to meaning, to the relation of form to function, and to appropriate techniques. When this mutual instruction happens, historic architecture is allowed to become “the protagonist of its own history, in all its complexities”. Rehabilitation needs to combine art and functionalism, to discover the essence of a building which can be communicated through architectural language. This conception of architectural conservation as an act of "re-composition" has given Modern architects the ability to transcend the limitations of previous techniques.

A classic example is the work of Carlo Scarpa at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, reconstructed between 1957 and 1973. Scarpa's understanding of the relationship between conservation and design is evident in his drawings. The drawings that he produced in developing his design employed various techniques to represent the accumulation of time, something he felt gave character and vitality to historic buildings. He traced over lines in watercolor and ink and superimposed transparencies of all the floors and ceilings to develop a new structural mesh as an integral part of the original building.

Scarpa’s techniques uncover a deeper issue with architecture; that it cannot be strictly functional and technological, or based solely on a formal aesthetic; architecture is a poetic discourse between the two. In his text on the space of architectural representation, Alberto Perez Gomez states, “The dilemma ultimately concerns an architecture for a cultural epoch that is defined by a new beginning and yet cannot pretend to overcome modernity and leave behind its fundamental roots in historicity, but can only shift and redefine its critical terms.”

Directive Design

While the studio is based heavily in architectural theory, it is also guided by social behavioral theory. Directive design is a two pronged approach to adaptive reuse. First, the existing building directs and informs the new design through existing layout and features. Second, the new design aims to be directive for an enriched social climate and community building opportunities. The interplay between systems and users can manipulate social interaction and community engagement through the layout and types of spaces. The rehabilitation of Cotten Hall will look specifically at movement between public and private spaces and transparency between larger university spaces and smaller residential spaces. The idea of directive design was inspired under the premise of educational programming and social behavior studies. Robert Brown from the University of Nebraska describes directive design as the “management and manipulation of the environment for specific and even occasionally predictable purposes.” In terms of architectural design, the arrangement of public and private spaces and the insertion of new architectural language into an existing fabric creates depth, engaging residents to take note of their environments and directing them to become actively engaged in the space and their communities.

Context

Cotten Hall, located at the center of the UNC Greensboro campus, is one of seven neoclassical dormitories within the university Quad. Built between 1920 and 1923, Quad dormitories offer traditional double rooms and hall bathrooms. The Quad itself is a character-defining feature of the campus, serving as a hub for activity and community as well as creating a sense of place and identity for the university.

In the spring of 2009, due to worn-out systems and weak demand for rooms, the Board of Trustees opened a debate whether the seven dorms should be rebuilt or renovated, a proposal that roused overwhelming support against demolition. Then, on September 10 the Board of Trustees released their decision to complete a $52.3 million rehabilitation of the existing buildings, to create suite style rooms with common areas that will include the addition of air conditioning, fire sprinklers, and accessibility.

Precedent Studies

The rehabilitation of Cotten Hall is be educated by precedent studies focusing on several key design projects as well as continued research of dormitory design and the architectural narrative. The study will include the works of Carlo Scarpa, whose designs work to elude time and to discover the hidden qualities of matter. Examples of successful dormitory rehabilitations at Elon University as well as Chapel Hill will be considered, in addition to new residence hall designs following the “live-learn” model.

Approach

This studio will approach the rehabilitation of the Quad in a new way, combining modern design, sustainable technology, historic preservation and the “live-learn” residence hall model. As the name implies, a “live-learn” residence hall is an integrative model of student housing which promotes academic excellence and social interaction through mixed use areas. Floorplans feature single and double configurations, social spaces as well as areas for academic functions.

The antiquated idea that ‘work’ is done in the library and ‘relaxing’ is done in the dorm, does not fit the learning models for today’s college students. Live-Learn Residence halls are microcosms for current design trends, allowing the buildings to become incubators for emotional growth, relationship development, and a sense of community, place, and identity.

The studio project is grounded in preservation theory as well as directive design theory. The project will be guided by Brooker and Stone’s strategies of Insertion and Intervention. These strategies will allow for flexible design solution that provide a variety of living and community spaces, circulation between public and private spaces (when appropriate), and transparency between the larger university community and the smaller residence hall community. The project will also be guided by the Facilities Design and Construction Department’s proposed plans for the rehabilitation of the Quad dormitories. The intention is to provide an interpretation of a successful interplay of historic preservation, systems and users in an effort positively manipulate social interaction and community engagement within the dorm and university context.

Program

The 1920’s building consists of a basement and three floors. For the purpose of this project, only the ground floor and second floor will be utilized. The first floor of the building will be developed into a mixed use space including a coffee shop, study area, classroom and several living spaces. The space demands a flexible open area where students can mingle in public or semi-private areas, a study area that is quiet and sectioned away from the main flow of traffic, private access and spaces, community areas, living spaces and transparency between the interior and the outside. The upper floor will serve mostly as residences, with communal spaces for interaction, meetings and studying.

Given the fact that the original building does not include air conditioning, handicap accessibility or fire sprinklers; innovative, flexible technologies will be introduced and considered for the design to address these needs.

Using the first and second floors in conjuncture with one another will allow the dorm to become a hub for activity on campus. Students will be encouraged to build community and develop a sense of place through the design of the structure, resulting in retention of students on campus.

Method

In addition to a thorough assessment of precedent studies, a comprehensive analysis of the dormitory, existing plans and the proposed “live-learn” floor plan from the Facilities Design and Construction Department will guide the design phase of this studio. A study of the building will analyze its form, function and context. This analysis will provide insight that will lead to a more socially directive design plan. A study of how the building is used and what students actually need will determine circulation, egress and adjacency.

The studio will produce Conceptual and Schematic Designs of floor plans and community spaces will explore circulation, transparency and use. Design Development will solidify floor plan, function and integrative architectural elements. Finally, an Analysis of the rehabilitation will look at how the design was socially directive in the context of the university context.