Contributed By: Courtney Creenan, M.Arch + M.UP Student
Getting inside Buffalo, New York’s grain elevators has been on many a University at Buffalo architecture student’s to-do list. This past fall, students in the Inclusive Design Research Group were able to not only tour the facilities, but work inside the Marine A Grain Elevator, which is now a part of the newly incorporated Silo City complex.
The studio focused on a topic often overlooked in the architecture field: the public bathroom. Students had to design innovative, responsible, inclusive, and clever responses to potential event spaces proposed along with their public bathroom design. Some projects challenged current bathroom practices and stigmas. Others integrated the event space programming into the bathroom to create more atmospheric experiences than normally found in a typical bathroom through the use of repurposed materials, lighting affects, and acoustics.
Although many projects were very detailed in their proposal drawings, one pair of students, Patrick Connolly and Todd Graci, actually constructed their bathroom on site and it is now a working composting toilet for future events. The two bought a shipping container and retrofitted it with three bathrooms. This is the first design installation in the Silo City complex. Below are images from the students’ final presentations at the end of the Fall 2011 semester.
To view photo credits, select image thumbnail below.
Learn more about the research and creative activities of our enterprising students and faculty. At the School of Architecture and Planning, we engage with our local and global communities to push the boundaries of our disciplines and innovate the professions of architecture and planning.
No Comments
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.