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The Community Building is the central hub for the graduate students, offering a wide variety of choice, including a yoga room, reservable lounge, various study spaces, game room, music rooms and a multipurpose room. Pictured are some of the biophilic design features: a folded ceiling plane allows for an organic light well, with layers of accenting wood elements, and colors from surrounding flora and fauna.
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The Community Building coordinator desk and resources welcome students and families at the front door. The folded ceiling light well reinforces wayfinding with dappled light along the main pathway.
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The game room was developed through student engagement workshops, which revealed students’ desire for places that gave permission to have fun and focus on people rather than computers. Positioned on a high traffic corner with extensive glazing, this space celebrates the activity happening inside and allows passers-by to preview the scene before entering.
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Transparency at the yoga studio brings abundant daylight and connection to the outdoors into the wellness experience. Materiality is kept very simple to reinforce calm and focus within the environment.
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The residential building lobbies are designed to welcome residents home after long days on campus. The ground-floor spaces feature engaging warm colors, sparkling lights and thoughtful art.
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The buildings use color as an identifier, both inside and outside. Each second-floor terrace has custom artwork related to the flora and fauna of Irvine.
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Project Name: UC Irvine Verano 8 Graduate Student Housing
Project Statement: Wayfinding and placemaking are key priorities in the design of this graduate student housing community, from interior design to architecture and landscape architecture. Color, light and materiality are used across scales and settings to communicate and foster identity related to one’s home, one’s path, one’s sense of community.
Upon arrival in the Community Building, students are welcomed with a diversity of choices. A wide view range across various amenities allows individuals to take a pause before being selecting their direction. A geometric, wood-clad concierge desk serves as a hub for the experience, sharing a warm welcome and as well as food, games and instruments for check-out. It is a strategic touch-down point that contrasts the perceived dappled light beyond that draws one in and beckons curiosity.
The roof of the Community Building is designed as a folding plane with the seam of that fold opening to serve as an organic lightwell. The skylight bisects the building, connecting opposing entrances with the campus on one side, and the graduate student residences on the other. This skylight creates a lightwell at the interior which highlights the main path of circulation through the building. Polished concrete and bright white walls reflect and dissipate the natural light from above. This effect, in tandem with the strong geometry of the architecture, defines the path of travel as a strong contrast to the adjacent interior gathering spaces. Step off this path and experience earthy, organic colors and materiality. A warm, neutral floor pattern is grounding and reminiscent of a watercolor painting. A lowered ceiling clad in an acoustical wood-like product provides warmth, a sense of comfort and security, and aids in creating a quieter, more relaxing atmosphere. Materiality at the human scale brings in biophilic principles, with tactile, natural materials within individuals’ reach. A stepped, tiered approach to different zones creates separation and a variety of different experiences. Each zone, though, is still accessible through thoughtful coordination with the ramped circulation path beyond, providing multiple spaces and experiences that can be enjoyed and accessed by all.
The reservable lounge was designed to accommodate a variety of different needs and uses, expanding upon the smaller gatherings and activities that can be hosted within private residences. Bookended with a cooking kitchen at one end and media at the other, the central space provides diverse furniture with a mix-and-match spirit to suit a variety of needs. Sofas and lounge chairs can face the media wall for game day or movie nights. Tables are provided for individual use or can be ganged together for larger dining gatherings, cultural potlucks or holiday celebrations. Two media zones can support impromptu meetings or social time as needed. This lounge overlooks the campus on one side, and active interior areas on the other, serving as a real shared central gathering space.
The game room is a two-story space overlooking the courtyard and occupying one corner of the Community Building. Views out towards the landscape in from the courtyard connect the space with the residential community beyond, and invite passersby to join in the fun. Extensive student engagement was conducted to understand what was most wanted and needed by this community. Broad input drove the decision to celebrate more interactive, in-person games that promote engagement and connection. The resulting space features a pool table and foosball, as well as tables for smaller activities and board games like chess. Lounge furniture and media accent the space, taking a back seat to the interactive intention desired by the students.
The yoga room provides a space for wellness with ample natural light and landscape views. Operable shades allow group classes or individual users to maximize transparency or create a more protected experience. Wood flooring and acoustical wood-like ceiling wrap the space, embracing occupants in warmth and supporting a sense of relaxation.
Surrounding the Community Building are the graduate student residences. Each is identifiable by a building color that carries through from the exterior to the interior, a design choice for wayfinding and individuality. At each building, a covered porch is carved out from the structure. Residents and guests are welcomed by a glimpse of friends and neighbors enjoying the temperate indoor/outdoor connected space, which supports both prospect and refuge. It is a space to look out on the campus beyond, see activity entering and exiting the Community Building below, and witness and participate in social gathering. If students are seeking more refuge, they could enjoy the weather more tucked in. Furniture pieces can be moved around to accommodate a small or large group while still enjoying the ability to be shaded and sheltered. There are places for studying or socializing. Each building features a unique piece of art that supports wayfinding, and creates a sense of place and personality at the human scale. The art was translated into silk screen inspired panels on exterior materials depicting local flowering plants.
The interiors of each building incorporate the color highlighted on the exterior. In the orange building lobby, one can tuck away in a booth zone and be fully immersed. Flexible seating and adjustable blinds invite students to control the level of private focus or social engagement that befits the moment. A dropped pendant light fixture acknowledges and accentuates the volume of the space and respects the human scale.
UC Irvine Verano 8 Graduate Student Housing
Category
INeducation
Description
Project Name: UC Irvine Verano 8 Graduate Student Housing
Project Statement: Wayfinding and placemaking are key priorities in the design of this graduate student housing community, from interior design to architecture and landscape architecture. Color, light and materiality are used across scales and settings to communicate and foster identity related to one’s home, one’s path, one’s sense of community.
Upon arrival in the Community Building, students are welcomed with a diversity of choices. A wide view range across various amenities allows individuals to take a pause before being selecting their direction. A geometric, wood-clad concierge desk serves as a hub for the experience, sharing a warm welcome and as well as food, games and instruments for check-out. It is a strategic touch-down point that contrasts the perceived dappled light beyond that draws one in and beckons curiosity.
The roof of the Community Building is designed as a folding plane with the seam of that fold opening to serve as an organic lightwell. The skylight bisects the building, connecting opposing entrances with the campus on one side, and the graduate student residences on the other. This skylight creates a lightwell at the interior which highlights the main path of circulation through the building. Polished concrete and bright white walls reflect and dissipate the natural light from above. This effect, in tandem with the strong geometry of the architecture, defines the path of travel as a strong contrast to the adjacent interior gathering spaces. Step off this path and experience earthy, organic colors and materiality. A warm, neutral floor pattern is grounding and reminiscent of a watercolor painting. A lowered ceiling clad in an acoustical wood-like product provides warmth, a sense of comfort and security, and aids in creating a quieter, more relaxing atmosphere. Materiality at the human scale brings in biophilic principles, with tactile, natural materials within individuals’ reach. A stepped, tiered approach to different zones creates separation and a variety of different experiences. Each zone, though, is still accessible through thoughtful coordination with the ramped circulation path beyond, providing multiple spaces and experiences that can be enjoyed and accessed by all.
The reservable lounge was designed to accommodate a variety of different needs and uses, expanding upon the smaller gatherings and activities that can be hosted within private residences. Bookended with a cooking kitchen at one end and media at the other, the central space provides diverse furniture with a mix-and-match spirit to suit a variety of needs. Sofas and lounge chairs can face the media wall for game day or movie nights. Tables are provided for individual use or can be ganged together for larger dining gatherings, cultural potlucks or holiday celebrations. Two media zones can support impromptu meetings or social time as needed. This lounge overlooks the campus on one side, and active interior areas on the other, serving as a real shared central gathering space.
The game room is a two-story space overlooking the courtyard and occupying one corner of the Community Building. Views out towards the landscape in from the courtyard connect the space with the residential community beyond, and invite passersby to join in the fun. Extensive student engagement was conducted to understand what was most wanted and needed by this community. Broad input drove the decision to celebrate more interactive, in-person games that promote engagement and connection. The resulting space features a pool table and foosball, as well as tables for smaller activities and board games like chess. Lounge furniture and media accent the space, taking a back seat to the interactive intention desired by the students.
The yoga room provides a space for wellness with ample natural light and landscape views. Operable shades allow group classes or individual users to maximize transparency or create a more protected experience. Wood flooring and acoustical wood-like ceiling wrap the space, embracing occupants in warmth and supporting a sense of relaxation.
Surrounding the Community Building are the graduate student residences. Each is identifiable by a building color that carries through from the exterior to the interior, a design choice for wayfinding and individuality. At each building, a covered porch is carved out from the structure. Residents and guests are welcomed by a glimpse of friends and neighbors enjoying the temperate indoor/outdoor connected space, which supports both prospect and refuge. It is a space to look out on the campus beyond, see activity entering and exiting the Community Building below, and witness and participate in social gathering. If students are seeking more refuge, they could enjoy the weather more tucked in. Furniture pieces can be moved around to accommodate a small or large group while still enjoying the ability to be shaded and sheltered. There are places for studying or socializing. Each building features a unique piece of art that supports wayfinding, and creates a sense of place and personality at the human scale. The art was translated into silk screen inspired panels on exterior materials depicting local flowering plants.
The interiors of each building incorporate the color highlighted on the exterior. In the orange building lobby, one can tuck away in a booth zone and be fully immersed. Flexible seating and adjustable blinds invite students to control the level of private focus or social engagement that befits the moment. A dropped pendant light fixture acknowledges and accentuates the volume of the space and respects the human scale.