Surrounded by the Atlantic, the small peninsula town of Brooklin, Maine, is home to a rooted culture of wooden-boat building. This project saw us tasked with developing a wooden boat building school to ensure the education of further generations, and continue the town's core tradition. The site sat roughly a football field's distance North of the Atlantic ocean.
My concept was derived directly from a clinker hull of a wooden boat, one of the two main types of hulls used in the building process, used for a stronger, larger boat, initially representing the need for a large space. The plan was directly representative of the section of the hull, seen in the first sketch, where each wooden plank overlaps the one below it, then kept tightly joined by the frame of the boat.
Preliminary Sketches
The circulation hall on the southeast would serve as the "frame" of the boat, connecting and supplying access to each "plank". The lobby was poetically added last to the program, embodying the ever going process of boat construction by separating itself from the next plank, but still accessed through the hall, as though it was the last plank sliding onto the frame. Eventually, the concept of overlapping was taken into section and elevation, as each plank's glulam roof would slope higher, rising above the previous one. The topography was also manipulated, each plank sinking deeper into the ground, suggesting a journey to the water. Outdoor decks would be accessed by pivoting doors, which, when static, continue the idea of overlapping planks in a smaller, but not quite human scale.
Program
The planks were separated by purpose, with the public areas, such as the lobby, dining, and open studios near the entrance. These were diluted into quieter spaces, such as classrooms, the sewing shop, and drafting rooms, as one would walk down the hall. The last and largest area would serve as the boat-building room, featuring a barn door for transporting completed boats down to the water.
Sections
1' = 1/8"
Framing Plans and Wall Section
Alongside Studio 03, Building Matters tasked us with analyzing and understanding construction methods, and developing floor and roof framing plans as well as wall sections.
Physical Model
1' = 1/8"
Digital Model Renderings
