Grasslands Research Center

This grasslands institute came about because of all the invasive foreign grasses that are taking over the Carrizo Plain so that the native grasses and other plants can be studied and hopefully rehabilitated.  With this in mind, the design was focused on the concept of what is or is not invasive.  With architecture, by its very definition, being invasive, this design creates a way to supplement that inevitability by formally and performatively making a non-invasive building.  Formally I wanted to design a structure that would blend in with the landscape and not feel foreign to the site.  I wanted to design in a way that this building complex would become a part of the site, and that is how I developed my concept of using the surrounding hills as inspiration for my form.