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Wesleyan University’s SplitFrame: Architecture Research Design Build |
Elijah Huge leads the Architecture Research-Design-Build Studio at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut. Started just last year, the program began as an idea in search of a client, with an unsolicited proposal to undertake a small, landscape-focused architectural project — like a bird blind. The Helen Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary in nearby Portland, Connecticut, was facing trouble. The former commercial cranberry bog had attracted “a colony of beavers, who changed the site to such a degree that access was a serious challenge,” said its president, Alison Guiness. Professor Huge asked the board if they would be interested in a new observation platform. The board gave their unanimous approval.
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But the platform had to be made of durable, maintenance-free materials. It had to be innovative and stylish, yet functional. It had to deal with water that, thanks to beaver dams, was 3-feet deep. And it had to come within the budget set by the Audubon Society. Professor Huge and his students accepted the challenge.
The project, called SplitFrame, would be in two pieces: a floating observation deck and an elevated viewing station, connected by a hinged staircase. The viewing station’s six precast-concrete diamond piers — the only part of the structure in permanent contact with the ground — were secured with galvanized-steel pipes (a pin system). Then the observation deck’s anodized-aluminum frame was floated into place and connected. Today, the viewing platform provides visitors an immersive site experience, bringing them to the sanctuary out onto the water, and offering an overview from the maple-tree canopy above.
Next for Wesleyan’s program? “The plan is to continue to pursue small-scale projects,” says Huge. “Specifically, projects that allow us to focus on relationships between architecture and landscape, balancing three objectives: the production of relevant design research, real-world testing of ideas incubated in the studio, and the implementation of community-based, sustainable built work.”Get Architectural Record digital with free bonus content not found in the magazine!
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