Center for craft : design for expeditionary learning

Abstract

"Grow into what you are ... there is more in you than you know. If we can come to discover this, we may never again settle for anything less." - Kurt Hahn, Founder - Outward Bound. (1920) "Hours spent by the true craftsman in bringing out the grain which has long been imprisoned in the trunk of a tree, is an act of creation itself. He passes his hand over the satiny texture and finds God within." -George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree. (1987). This project is a proposal for Expeditionary Learning: a proposal drawing on the experience and ideas of Outward Bound to challenge and the engage the student, recognizing multiple routes to knowledge. We take in with the hands and sensitive skin of the face equally as much information as with our minds eye. The student is given the opportunity and encouraged to take stake in his own education, and through the act of making encourage self discovery. The thesis will explore a specific site and building proposal for this program. One removed from both the geographical and ritual zones of comfort of the student. A four week course will require the student to come to terms with a new dynamic of living and daily ritual closely tied to the group and the specific needs of the·project. The building and site organization must respond to both these programmatic intentions as well as mitigate the unique site conditions. The building is a stage for the movement of raw material, craftsmen, extreme climate, and a rich hi story. The project lies here, within the cut, between landscape and nature, between material and the built form made from it.