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Project Tag: natural light

  • The Commons

    The Commons

    A New Vision for The Commons Focused on Performance, Play, and Community

    Input revealed the following priorities for the new design:

    • Creating a new and improved performance space
    • Expanding and improving the indoor playground
    • Adding more informal and formal public meeting spaces
    • Including more food and restaurant opportunities
    • Maintaining the sculpture, “Chaos 1,” by Jean Tinguely, which was a highlight of the development’s original interior

    Selective Demolition Preserves Structure and Sculpture

    Early in the design process, prior to demolition, it was determined that the new facility would pay tribute to the original by keeping the steel superstructure of the original building as well as leaving the beloved sculpture, Chaos 1, exactly where it has always stood. Consequently, demolition was very selective.

    Designed for Performance, Events, and Everyday Gathering

    The newly created main entrance to the building features zigzag windows that are acoustical as well as architectural, framing views down the main street. Escalators and stairs wrap around the Chaos 1 sculpture, in its original location, to create a commons space and draw people to second-floor activities.

    A new second floor under the original building’s structure provides space for the multi-purpose performance and activity space. The upper-level space is designed for flexibility to accommodate public community events, performances, and private events.

    Indoor Playground Framed by City Views

    A corner glass pavilion is skewed and sloped, providing views of the corner courthouse tower while creating an intriguing space to house a new indoor playground featuring a custom designed interactive sculpture that serves as a “climber” for children.

    Designed for Sustainability

    Natural daylighting, energy efficient lighting and mechanical system, and a vegetated green roof on the new structure assist with making this a sustainable project.

    CSO collaborated with Koetter Kim to complete this project.

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  • Medical Office Building

    Medical Office Building

    Material contrast and artistic detail bring the façade to life.

    The exterior façade is a mixture of natural stone, masonry, and metal shingles with curtainwall accenting the large conference space on the second floor. An artistic glass tile feature wall extends from the façade to further enhance visual interest on the exterior.

    Spaces were designed with both staff and patients in mind.

    A sleek, modern employee break room opens up to a large outdoor dining/gathering terrace designed to accommodate a wide variety of staff functions.

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  • GE Waukesha Engine Factory

    GE Waukesha Engine Factory

    A Data-Driven Manufacturing Environment Designed to Empower a Self-Directed Workforce

    GE charged the design team to deliver an engine manufacturing facility for state-of-the-art manufacturing processes that would be fully connected to the industrial internet, providing real time data analytics and feedback to the manufacturing floor personnel. The facility was designed to provide inspiring and collaborative work and meeting spaces to empower and uplift GE’s self-directed workforce.

    Illuminating the Brilliant Factory

    The project design principles included: creating brilliant, luminous working environments within the plant and office spaces by introducing generous amounts of natural daylight; putting the Multimodal Assembly Area on display from the Main Lobby, providing a large window wall between the 2 areas; and using daylighting as a metaphor for the “Brilliant Factory,” illuminating GE’s advanced engine manufacturing technology.

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  • Roche Diagnostics Lab and Office

    Roche Diagnostics Lab and Office

    A Light-Filled Architectural Expression of Roche’s Culture and Technology

    In order to maximize natural light while adhering to sustainable design features, detailed 3-D models, sun path studies, building sections, and energy analysis models were developed and analyzed to inform the final design configuration of the west façade shading system and glazing. The design solution creates a carefully designed, glazed west-facing façade which allows very controlled, diffused natural daylight directly into the circulation atrium and deeply into the lab, office, and interaction spaces beyond.

    The interior spaces were designed with extensive interior glazing to display the advanced laboratory technology and innovation that is central to Roche’s business success and corporate culture, as well as to allow for the deep penetration of natural light. The Design Team combined very clean, European modernist materials and furnishings with a warm palette of neutral hues and accent colors rooted in the native Indiana landscape.

    Advanced, Sustainable Design

    As the result of the client’s tech-based culture and high design aspirations, the design team employed a rigorous, multidisciplinary, sustainable design approach to create an uplifting, technologically advanced facility that inspires its scientific staff and expresses its culture of scientific innovation.

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  • Cummins Seymour Technical Center

    Cummins Seymour Technical Center

    Architectural Expression Meets Solar Performance

    The main entrances incorporate dramatically cantilevered steel canopies, which are reminiscent of Columbus, Indiana’s iconic red suspension bridge. The office building’s exterior was designed with an advanced engineered skin, incorporating an exterior daylighting and shading system. Each of the primary exterior façades has been purposefully designed to respond to its specific and unique solar orientation.

    Design elements inspired by engine assembly reinforce the connection between plant and office.

    Cummins wanted to “bring the office into the plant, and the plant into the office.” Highly durable and raw industrial materials such as corrugated steel panels, polished concrete, and wood slats fastened to exposed metal studs were incorporated throughout the office environment. These same materials can be found on the plant floor, and therefore subtly reinforce the connection. The engine assembly and finishing process was carefully examined early in the design process with the goal of informing the final design. Elements of the manufacturing process are on display in the office area through the incorporation of design features such as the compound curves and finish found on powder-coated steel benches which mimic the sleek lines of the engines.

    Highly flexible, ergonomic workspace solutions and state-of-the-art audiovisual collaboration systems allow the engineers to tailor how and where they work.

    Flexible Workspaces for Collaboration and Focus

    A variety of flexible meeting rooms, focus booths, soft seating areas, and social hubs are available to accommodate the changing needs of their workforce and promote interaction, collaboration, and engineering innovation.

    Spaces that Inspire and Uplift

    The Cummins Seymour Technical Center does more than provide much needed space for engineering staff – it uplifts their work force in beautiful spaces and is an inspiring reflection of Cummins’ proud tradition of world-class engineering.

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  • American Red Cross Indiana Region Headquarters

    American Red Cross Indiana Region Headquarters

    Designed for Collaboration and Wellness

    Flexible training rooms, a community center, teaming areas, local office spaces, and huddle spaces encapsulate the programs within the headquarters, creating an environment that promotes interaction where employees and volunteers feel energized and accommodated. Employees are not assigned desks or specific workspaces, so the design of the facility is very flexible and adaptable. Amenities include a rooftop terrace that creates a respite and wellness destination, and a coffee house that connects and creates community.

    An Exterior that Reflects Both Sustainability and Place

    The building is extremely sustainable, with the exterior wrapped in red brick, seamlessly blending in with the surrounding architectural aesthetic.

    Natural Light and Neighborhood Views

    The headquarters has large windows that welcome natural light creating a community-oriented atmosphere and providing views of the surrounding neighborhood of downtown Indianapolis.

    Brand Identity Expressed Through History and Design

    In addition, a key branding focal point is incorporated on the interior corridor that displays historical Red Cross artifacts, local to Indianapolis. The iconic, ARC-branded “red” is carried throughout the headquarters.

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  • Bartlett Reflection Center

    Bartlett Reflection Center

    A Glass-Walled Gathering Room Designed to Inspire Dialogue and Connection

    The Center is anchored by a glass-walled gathering room featuring a towering limestone fireplace that serves as a backdrop to group discussions, lectures, sermons, and events.

    Academic and Reflective Spaces Enhanced by Outdoor Decks and Natural Surroundings

    The building also includes a theological library and extensive outdoor deck areas in order to enjoy the surrounding environment.

    A Sustainably Designed Building Integrating Regional Materials, Ecological Restoration, and Daylit Interiors

    The small structure was designed sustainably to minimize its impact on the environment and its immediate environs. The building was constructed with natural, regional, and recycled materials. The site and adjacent habitat were restored with native Indiana plants and incorporate a natural rainwater treatment pond. The interior environments were designed to maximize natural light, views, human comfort, and controllability. CSO completed this project in conjunction with Lake Flato.

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  • Seng-Liang Wang Hall

    Seng-Liang Wang Hall

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