Gimme Shelter Design-Build Competition: Bundalow (2009) -Finalist
North Studio Team Member
.
.
.
.
Created in collaboration with Elijah Huge as a response to the Gimme Shelter design/build competition, sponsored by the Schuylkill Environmental Education Center, Bundalow is a modular system of bundled bamboo poles. Designed with a lifespan of one year, the proposal was inherently concerned with the entire building process, from harvest to reclamation.
Bundalow is built of bamboo sourced from a grower 18 miles from the Schuylkill Center. A rapidly renewable and biodegradable product, the bamboo is cut and bundled to form structural surfaces using off-the-shelf tie-down straps as the primary connection device. The project proposes to use two surfaces constructed in this manner – one as a canopy, the other as a plinth for the sleeping platform – as the core components of the project. The canopy transitions from a surface which reflects the existing topographic conditions to an overhead cover for the sleeping platform.
Bundalow interprets shelter as a careful modulation of two topographies: the ground and the tree canopy. The structure seeks to facilitate specific activities (sleeping, sitting, watching) without precluding a direct visual and experiential relationship with the site as a whole. Drawing attention to the ways in which canopy and ground are experienced, rather than by producing an architectural interior or a space that is distinct and divided from the ground beneath it or the canopy above it, Bundalow facilitates an immersive experience on the site.
Images courtesy of North Studio. Text and Layout: Elijah Huge, Models and Renderings: Angus McCullough
