Enter (or choose) your name in the Your Name field above.
Then, describe your design inspirations and big feature ideas using text , images, web links, movies... Whatever media works best to express your ideas!
I first chose a site that I wanted to build this exhibition space on and I chose the beautiful Smith Mountain Lake in Huddleston, Virginia. This is a place I grew up going to every summer and is a massive lake with over 500 miles of shore line. It is also a place with a wide variety of homes around it, ranging from massive mansions with lake side views to mobile home parks for people who want to spend their summer in the area. Although it is commonly used as a summer vacation spot, there are thousands of people who call Smith Mountain Lake their home year round.
With all of the constant construction around the lake for people building new homes and businesses in the area, I thought this exhibition space would be perfect. I think that it could inspire many people rebuilding, remodeling, or tearing down and building from scratch to use sustainable building practices.
Next I thought immediately to the materials I wanted to use for this space. My mind went straight to shipping containers because it is an easy thing to draw people in. I think it could be really interesting to bend these containers to new shapes that aren’t traditional to give the space a whimsical feel for the kids visiting with their parents or guardians and to show people what sustainability can really look like.
I think it would be really cool to have some shipping containers exposed to the outside, while others are covered to seem like traditional walls like the examples below.
I also want to allow for a back porch over looking the lake to add to the experience of visiting the space, but also once again prove that design is not limited by the materials used to construct it.
And of course their would have to be boat access with docks on the lakeside with a view such as…
and the boat house would also be built using sustainable material.
I want to draw people into the possibilities of sustainable architecture with a beautiful exhibition space that is a sustainable architecture feat itself and then show what else can be done with design when sustainability is consulted.