Project: Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
Designed by Studio Gang Architects
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
Website: www.studiogang.net
Gang Architects studio develops the project for Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership building for a location in Michigan.
From the Architects:
Studio Gang Architects and Kalamazoo College will ceremoniously break ground on a new campus building to house the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership on October 9, 2012 at 4:00 pm. Construction groundbreaking could begin prior to that date.
Set to be completed in Fall 2013, the 10 000 sqf Arcus Center, which is targeting LEED Gold certification, will be the world’s first purpose-built structure for social justice leadership development: a study, meeting, and event space where students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in conversation and activities aimed at creating a more just world.
The architecture of the Arcus Center supports its important mission and work in multiple ways. Organized as a welcoming crossroads for convening, the building is sited to engage its three immediate contexts—the college campus, a residential neighborhood, and an old-growth grove of trees—by drawing their topography into the building and outwardly projecting the activities taking place within through transparent façades.
The gently curving walls connecting these façades are constructed with wood masonry, a regional, traditional building method that incorporates local, sustainably harvested white cedar. This is the first instance that this building technique, which is both low-carbon and highly insulating, has been employed for a project at an institutional scale.
