#ArchitecturalDesign #EducationCenter

Architecture is designed to shield us from the weather.

WHAT IF we experience the weather inside a building and become aware of climatic phenomena?

At the foot of the Flatirons, the new education center emerges from the surface of Table Mesa.

The education center connects the existing parking lot and the NCAR building, and completes a circulation loop, in order to bring people to the outdoor activity spaces at the perimeter of Table Mesa.

The building stretches out horizontally, with respect to the verticality of the existing NCAR building, a masterpiece designed by I. M. Pei. The rooftop path of the education center draws people from the NCAR building towards the observation terrace at the edge of the Mesa.

The building entrance and amphitheater rise up from the ground, looking towards the magnificent mountains in the west.

The observation terrace reaches out to the east and provides a view of sunrise over the city panorama of Boulder spread below.

At the entry to the building, the stepping platforms leading to the auditorium at the lower level can create an open learning space which is sided by classrooms.

The exhibition space welcomes visitors with the soaring NCAR building which is framed into space, and creates a circle of people around it.

Sunlight reaches the underground galleries through the continuous skylight and highlights the passage under the sky, descending towards the destination of the building, the Sky Auditorium.

The Sky Auditorium breathes in the air into the building.

The sky and ground merge inside the auditorium. It brings the weather of the sky inside, and let people experience the atmosphere of the space, which changes with the passage of time.