News
 

Architecture college to add design center

By Luciano Battistini
News Reporter

A new design center being added to the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture will be a place where students learn by doing, project architect Geoffrey Brune said.

"This building will support a variety of hands-on experiences by a number of students," Brune said. "What the building and the space will do is support our kind of traditionally applied theory approach to teaching, where we have always been interested in the application of ideas to the constructed and built world."

The unused Band Annex, located next to the Architecture Building, will be transformed into the Design Exploration Center, which will house three architecture units that stress the practice of sustainable design. Kaye Patterson, the Hines College's director of development, said these units have not been working to their full potential.

"The design-build studio is on the loading dock and in the shop, so it is very crowded," Patterson said. "The environmental stimulation and modeling laboratory is in a room the size of a closet."

Brune said the Design-Build Studio, one of the units that will benefit from the new center, will have ample space for its needs. The studio has, in the past few years, completed several environmental design projects for the Houston Independent School District.

He also said that the new building will give the Environmental and Modeling Laboratory a full-scale environment with variable lighting and variable acoustics so that environmental factors such as airflow, sun and shade and other conditions can be tested.

"I think this building expands our ability to really be a leader in this area in this part of the country," Brune said. "It allows our program to compete in a four- or five-state area in terms of the industrial design program, and reinforces and supports our excellence in the architectural design program."

Patterson said the renovation project will cost an estimated $400,000, much less than the estimated $1.8 million price tag for construction of a new building. The project will be funded through donations of cash and services.

"We're going to start the construction immediately," Patterson said. "The construction tents are supposed to be put up this week."

The renovation will consist of upgrading the building's site, exterior and interior to meet University and municipal standards.

Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu