University of Maryland | Spring 2005 | Alick Dearie | 6 weeks
This project’s objective was the design of a new visitor’s center at the Monocacy National Civil War Battlefield site. Working individually and in groups we questioned, discovered, and attempted to define and interpret the essence and meaning inherent in a battlefield site. A conservative building footprint preserves the site’s rainwater permeability, and minimizes insulated exterior wall area. Orientation toward the morning sun makes efficient use of solar energy in heating the building. Views toward important features in the landscape are critical determinants of building orientation. Spatially, the building consists of a capacious and uncluttered volume, subdivided into the requisite internal functional regions by minimal means. The unity, continuity, and modularity of the structure is apparent. The lobby, while introducing visitors to a controlled, screened view of the battlefield, serves as an anteroom to the gallery, or exhibition space. This space, illuminated by the sun through a precisely incised opening in the plane of the roof, is overlapped by the observation deck, which projects into the landscape.
