Instructor:
Lou Kimball, AIA

You converse with material through the pores of your skin, your ears and your eyes.  The dialogue does not stop at the surface, as its scent fills the air. Through touch, you exchange heat and the material gives you an immediate response.

We must again find a dialogue with the earth.  The earth's division of mass such as water and air embody the great constructions.

Sverre Fehn

When the shelter is sure, the storm is good.

Henri Bosco

WET | DRY

The studio will explore the implications of site as manifest in building. Over the course of the semester, we will study two sites—East Texas and West Texas—with one program. 

Site #1
With an average rainfall of 35-60 inches and temperature averages of 50F in January and 82F in July, East Texas is a humid subtropical climate typical of the Southeastern United States. East Texas lies within the Gulf Coastal Plain combining the temperate forest to the north and the temperate grassland to the south. 

Site #2
A rugged terrain including small mountain ranges, West Texas has a semi-arid to arid climate with as little as 8 inches of rainfall per year. West Texas contains part of the Chihuahuan Desert and also the Southern Great Plains, known as the Llano Estacado. 

Program
The shelter will accommodate a few people for extended stays in these remote landscapes. Given the isolation of the sites in East and West Texas, the structure will respond to the fluctuations of the local environment through passive design strategies.

The same program in two sites will reveal and make tangible the impact of the environment on all aspects of design, especially materials.