University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

The Living Wall is a community of pods comprising 14 full-scale interactive structures. Photo: NICHOLAS BRUSCIA

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  The Living Wall UB student architecture project. | Take a tour

By PATRICIA DONOVAN

Published: April 19, 2010

The Living Wall, a “linear community of pods” comprising 14 full-scale interactive structures created by 100 UB architecture students, will be exhibited through Oct. 23 in Griffis Sculpture Park, where visitors climbing on, over and through them will help the students test the functionality of their designs.

The public is invited to a dedication ceremony for The Living Wall at 1 p.m. April 25 in the sculpture park on Ahrens Road, off Route 219 in the Town of Ashford Hollow in Cattaraugus County. The event will feature statements by some of the student designers, followed by a public reception and preview until 6 p.m. It is free of charge.

The park will open for the season on May 1; it will be open seven days a week from dawn to dusk until Oct. 31. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, and free for children under 12.

The Living Wall project was developed and produced this spring by first-year undergraduates enrolled in studios taught by faculty members Shadi Nazarian, clinical associate professor; Christopher Romano, adjunct assistant professor; and Nicholas Bruscia, adjunct assistant professor, all in the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning. The students were asked to design and construct a minimal dwelling unit with an entrance, internal circulation and sleeping areas for a minimum of three people out of 2”x 4” lumber and CDX plywood, which often is used in residential construction.

“Individual units were required to share a party wall with adjoining structures,” says Romano, “which allows unique spatial, structural and programmatic conditions to emerge.”

The modules were constructed on campus, transported to Griffis Sculpture Park and are being assembled on site, assuming their final positions as a linear “community of pods.”

As part of the project, the student designers will spend the next few months repeatedly visiting the park to see and report on how their structures perform as public structure-sculptures over time.

“Regular observation and documentation of the successes and shortcomings of the individual structures will permit the students to better understand the consequences of their design decisions,” Nazarian says.

The exhibit is supported by LPCiminelli, Norman Georgi Construction Co. Inc. and the Ashford Hollow Foundation. Graduate teaching assistants on The Living Wall project were Albert Chao, Katie Conwell, Joe DiPerna, Josh Gardner, Silvia Lee, Nellie Niespodzinski and Will Ransom.