Projects \ Cornell Forest Edge
As defined in the landscape design guidelines of the Cornell Master Plan: “Cornell’s landscapes are essential not only to the image of the campus and research extensions, but also to the university’s academic mission and quality of life. They are a fundamental part of Cornell’s social infrastructure, providing spaces for casual interaction, recreation, and celebrations, while furthering teaching researching and outreach. Future developments will require the maintenance and improvement of historic landscapes and the creation of new ones. Indeed, landscapes will provide the framework and setting for future development.” Design began with a series of mappings across multiple scales: region, territory, and site. The focus of these studies was to inform a thesis that integrates the project to its wider social and geographic context and to select a site for the research campus.
When studying across these scales, a pattern of forest structure was discovered. The gorges of this region in New York organize the region dominated by forests creating clear breaks and boundaries. The location of the Field Campus was selected for its existing culture, infrastructure, and function as the main gate into the research forest. In addition, the site strongly relates to the valley created by the Banfield Creek that breaks through the center of the Arnot forest. Due to its existing culture and traditions, the research campus design aims to emulate the old Field Campus, while improving the link to its landscape. The most sacred element of the Field Campus is the open field that all buildings bound. This field is the location of all outdoor training and social events for residents and visitors within the Arnot Forest. Architecture is used to articulate the edge conditions or extend past them creating a design that considers the site and its buildings as a single living ecosystem. A research campus at the edge of Cornell’s Arnot Research Forest aims to spatially define the physical and experiential link between a research facility and the landscape of research, creating a new social framework intertwined with the land.
Location Van Etten, NY
Class Design IV - Fall 2015
Professor Hope Hasbrouck