ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT VISITOR CENTER

ARC 601 UofA AZ
Fall 2015

project goal

This site is located in a vast national park in Arizona surrounded by the Mexico-United States border to the south, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to the east, and the Tohono O’odham Nation to the west.
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The visitor center as a most important building is located along Highway 85 and is the first construction upon entering the park. This building providing space for the public visitors and administrative spaces for the staff.
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The main purpose of this project is to redesign the existing structure, considering environmental effects, to design a Net-Zero building. The climate condition is one of the most major considerations when undertaking this task. Creating shaded areas and taking advantage of existing elements is a primary strategy in this project

Site Analysis

The northwest to the southeast orientation of the building creates long facades toward east and west that cause undesirable heat gain through the fenestration.
The unshaded asphalted parking lot to the west act as a big heat island that absorbs and radiant heat to the surrounding construction on a micro scale.
The other issue is the lack of visual connection from the main road since the building is low-rise and is hidden behind the vegetation.

the big idea

The proposal is about maintaining the existing construction and implement the most effective ideas with minimum modifications and construction.
In this climate, the most critical passive strategy is maximizing the shaded area.  As a result, a canopy is provided over the new construction and a sunken garden at the bottom. By doing so, the whole program is divided into public and private zones and the positive passive strategy works best for the entire building. The disadvantage of the parking, which acts as a heat island, is transformed into a desirable element. The parking area covered by black asphalt gets hot by absorbing solar radiation and the hot air rises. Meanwhile, by enhancing the green area at the backside of the building, the resulting two different temperature zones will cause airflow through the sunken area.

The proposal is about maintaining the existing construction and implement the most effective ideas with minimum modifications and construction.

*Hover to see the second floor

Spatial sequences

When the visitors arrive at the drop-off area, the visitors will enter the exhibition space which offers two areas for information.
Going up a level by lift or staircase will introduce the gift shop. Here, the visitors may equip themselves with accessories to get ready for their journey into the desert park.
Next, the visitors enter a semi-open space and discover the fully shaded observation deck. This offers an opportunity to comfortably observe the nearby desert and focal points.
By a ramp, visitors are guided to the trail. After walking to the end of the trail loop, visitors return to the building at the sunken garden. Here they can rest and share their experience while enjoying the cool breeze and learning about sustainable strategies that have been used in the building.

The sunken garden, where the trail journey ends, and the visitors can rest and share their experiences. This is the heart of the building where environmental ideas flourished here and visitors can experience the outdoor environment comfortably in harsh desert weather and learn about the building

daylight analysis

It's always desirable to not only improve the thermal comfort level of indoor spaces but also enhancing the daylight level which improves the visitor's experience and efficiency of the users.
By opening up the middle section of the building and modifying the interior partitions, the analysis showed a great daylight autonomy improvement on the bottom graph during the whole year.

An accessible ramp connects the upper level of the new construction to the trail and from there to the sunken garden. From the upper level, the visitors can have a general view of the park and plan their day accordingly.