2013 Galleries

Galleries // 2013 Spark:Space // Sustainability Treehouse

Sustainability Treehouse

Winner - Platinum

Competition: Spark:Space
Designer: Mr. Adam Brodsley/ Brett Terpeluk
Design Type: Environment
Company / Organization / School: Volume Inc. with Studio Terpeluk
Website: http://volumesf.com
Team Members: Eric Heiman, Creative Director Bryan Bindloss, Designer Brice McGowan, Designer Daniel Surgeon, Designer Ragina Johnson, Designer Brian McMullen, Copywriter Michael Rigsby, Copywriter Natasha Fraley, Content Developer Erin Kemp, Project Manager Hanna Thomson, Project Manager Pacific Studios, Exhibit Builder Mithun: Design Architect BNIM: Architect of Record / Executive Architect

The problem was to design an exhibition program that tells a sustainability story through the actual Sustainability Treehouse at The Summit (Design Architect:Mithun/Architect of Record: BNIM)—an adventure center for the millions of youth and adults involved in the Boy Scouts of America. It is set on former strip mining land that was converted into a nature preserve and will permanently host the BSA's Jamboree gatherings. The main challenge was to create an experience that would engage Boy Scouts eager to find the next adventure activity—zip lines, climbing areas, a skate park—and leave them with a new perspective on sustainability. The design avoids outdated and formulaic exhibit solutions and, instead, delivers information in surprising and unexpected ways, down to the humorous and slightly irreverent tone of the exhibit text. Nature's natural processes inform the exhibit program which then translates these principles to the everyday living in one's own house. Highlights include –A "Rain Chain," made of stainless steel camping cups that transfer rainwater from the roof into a cistern. The cistern then cleans and purifies the water for the drinking fountain adjacent to a LED message board that displays how much has been collected and consumed. –A complete tree suspended horizontally in the first floor space which(through a variety of specimens, videos and other content) illustrates its own self-sufficiency in nature and provides a model for how the building works. –The "Recyclotron" a Rube Goldberg-esque rolling ball machine encased in a wood slat "mini-house" that symbolically represents an ideally functioning sustainable building.