Peritoneum Shade Structure

The project is located on a university campus, and is a temporary shade structure for the campus’ community in the 2011-2012 academic school year. The plaza onto which the structure is placed is located between an active lecture hall, the art school, and the design school. The project "square" is a space of 35 feet by 45 feet. In the past, the plaza itself has been underutilized, and observation has shown that most visitors of the site use it merely as a pathway to and from different buildings.

Our team, Second Story, entered this design competition as a multidisciplinary team, composed mostly of undergraduate Landscape Architecture students, along with students in graphic design, drawing, and dance. The challenge of the project was to create a shade structure that is sustainable, constructible on a limited budget, and has the ability to engage the community, as well as our fellow students. As the winner of the design competition for "X-Square," we were afforded the opportunity to build our structure.

The design process began with preliminary designs by each member individually, allowing each student to interpret the project according to the expertise and talents of their respective major. The sketches ranged considerably from student to student, and we were able to extract the best elements from each design to use in our final piece. This collaboration of individual talents is evident in our final design, with each discipline well represented. We not only strove to create a unique and functional shade structure, but saw an opportunity to create a great art installation as well. Our intent with the design was to enhance the existing circulation pattern and passageway, rather than eliminating or fighting the natural flow. We relied heavily on color to create heightened visual interest and change in perception of space to evoke emotion for the viewer.
As we moved into the post-design phase, we tackled issues just like any other project, meeting ADA standards as well as fire and safety codes. A major constraint was that the design was not to penetrate the ground in any way. Though this brought many challenges, we were determined to keep design integrity throughout the process, letting the people who voted for our design to be satisfied with the outcome. The project, being an overhead structure, needed to be approved by an engineer. We worked closely with a licensed, local engineer, which gave us experience in collaboration and taught us how to communicate our ideas so they would not be lost from design to construction. We collaborated with other professionals for advice (contractors, engineers and wood shop workers) to obtain ideas that would best suit our design. After many meetings, we sifted through all the guidance and narrowed down how we would erect a structure many professionals and professors thought to be impossible, especially with our lack of experience.

Description by designers