Cascading Stair / Organizational Concept

The new College of Pharmacy (at the University of Rhode Island) is organized by an ascending series of interconnected, social Neighborhood spaces throughout the building along a centralized and common circulation path. The unified nature of these spaces is integral to the success of combining a diverse program in order to achieve the University’s goal of fostering the cross-pollination of ideas and research within the pharmacy program. These varying sized spaces, adjacent to main circulation of the building are linked by a communicating stair. Individually, each Neighborhood allows for students and faculty the opportunity to interact in a small groups or simply a place to work between classes.

Each Neighborhood includes a living “Green Wall,” a two-story structural pier clad with a brick veneer and wood slats providing a surface for medicinal plantings to grow tall, thus creating a series of living “green walls” located at each Neighborhood. By creating deep, recessed volumes along the southern exposure, the resulting spaces provided generous 2 story interior volumes, exterior balconies and terraces which face the Medicinal Garden, an extension of the program’s natural research. Responding to the dual nature of the campus spaces, the materiality of the façades, sunshading elements and the vocabulary of fenestration utilized reflects the orientation of the building relative to its needs.

 
Living “green wall” diagram

Related:
Integrating Green