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Architect
Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates met the challenge of designing
the new Williams Natatorium at Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills,
Mich., on a campus where the spirit of Eliel Saarinen will live forever.
"Integration of body and mind" reigns in academe and physical
surround throughout the campus, and the natatorium follows suit, blending
the utilitarianism of a competition swimming pool with a serene décor
echoing its sylvan setting.
The pool area's most striking feature is its dropped,
night-sky blue ceiling, which harbors a scattering of lights whose seemingly
random pattern emulates the stars above. The dropped ceiling also accommodates
two huge conic apertures that reach up to the roof. Their coverings can
be opened in nice weather to the real sky. The unusual ceiling design
has its practical side as well: the deep interstitial space allows maintenance
staff to change the light bulbs over the pool easily and keep a constant
check on the steel structure for corrosion.
The
natatorium's brick walls also play their part in bringing the outdoors
in. Their 20-foot-tall windows are shaded by vertical wood slats, which
open and close hydraulically. The operable windows allow natural ventilation,
which is gained through the conic apertures, eliminating the need for
air-conditioning. Aesthetically, the tall wood blinds call to mind the
trunks of the tall pine trees that stand sentinel around the building.
"Our design sites the structure at the eastern
end of the athletic complex, and a great bent wall clad in glazed brick
terminates the long east-west axis of the Saarinen campus," the architects
explain. "The project is both a building and a landscape element."
Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved.
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Tod Williams Billie Tsien Associates will receive an AIA Honor
Award for Architecture for the Williams Natatorium at Cranbrook
during the AIA national convention in Denver, May 1719.
Tod Williams Billie Tsien's design for Cranbrook Academy's new
natatorium morphs natural elements of sky and woods into a utilitarian
building.
Photos ©Michael Moran
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