The Hangout, the winning design in a Rice School of Architecture mini-charrette, would give students a new spot to rest and study in the space tucked between Fondren Library and the Humanities Building.
Mini-charrette winners’ plan would convert small grove into space for study – with hammocks
Students at the Rice School of Architecture (RSA) decided they and their classmates needed a new place to hang out. So they designed one.
As the winners of a mini-charrette hosted by the school last week, the team’s creation, simply called The Hangout, is expected to make an appearance in the canopied space between Fondren Library and the Humanities Building.
The creators envisaged a stand of white poles arranged between the trees, with hooks to hold hammocks at various heights for reclining or sitting.
“When we were designing the space, we were always asking what Rice students want,” said Ethan Chan, a sophomore architecture major. “And we finally decided, ‘Well, we’re Rice students,’ so we designed it for ourselves as something that we would actually seek out.”
Members of The Hangout team make their pitch to jurors at the Rice School of Architecture on Oct. 23. From left: Yoseph Maguire, Ethan Chan, Eric Hsu and Andrew Bertics. Photo by Geneva Vest
The multidisciplinary team included sophomore Andrew Bertics and junior Eric Hsu, both architecture majors, and sophomore electrical engineering major Yoseph Maguire. They were one of four teams to enter the mini-charrette, which asked participants to reimagine the little-used patch of land off the Academic Quad as a space for outdoor learning. The teams were required to start and complete their designs over the course of a single weekend, mimicking the kinds of time pressures architects face in the working world.
They presented their ideas in a public gathering Oct. 23 at Anderson Hall. The jury, which included Rice President David Leebron and Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby, listened, asked questions and ultimately selected the winner.
A temporary installation of the design, funded by the Rice Environmental Society and proceeds from the sale of the KTRU transmitter, is expected to follow the successful mounting of a previous charrette champion that still graces the field west of RSA, the “Soundworm!”
“The construction of The Hangout is pretty low-tech, so we don’t image it will be too difficult to build,” Bertics said.
The Hangout team calculated that the hammocks can be set up in 19,000 configurations, depending on the ultimate placement of the 21 poles. “The poles are scattered organically to accommodate the different functions of the space,” Chan said. “For example, if you want to achieve a u-shaped auditorium scene, a grid-like configuration of columns wouldn’t be very optimal.”
He said the root structure of the four trees in the space additionally kept them from considering a strict grid. “Allowing it to be fluid in response to the constraints that we’re not aware of yet makes this idea more feasible,” Bertics added.
The second-place team, Posture Play, designed benches around the trunks of each of the trees that allowed for sitting or reclining at various angles deemed optimal for comfortable study. The runners-up were Capriccube, a colorful structure the designers – all freshmen – described as a giant Rubik’s Cube with pieces broken off, and Continuity of Canopy, which took the natural form of the trees into account in a configurable space that would also incorporate solar power.
The mini-charrette was open to all Rice students, and ultimately the participants represented an even mix of architecture and other students. The organizers were architecture and anthropology junior Kajal Patel, sociology and policy studies junior Geneva Vest, architecture and German studies junior Toshiki Nimii and architecture junior Mitch Mackowiak.
Sponsors were the RSA, the Rice Design Alliance and the Architecture Society of Rice. Jurors included RSA Dean Sarah Whiting, Associate Professor of Architecture Dawn Finley, Vice Provost and Head Librarian Sara Lowman, RSA lecturer and landscape architect Andrew Albers, rdAgent and Rice Annual Fund Associate Director Sean Cowan and Hermann Park Conservancy board member and architect Natalye Appel.
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The idea sounds wonderful. However, I am truly annoyed that the temporary installation was partly funded by the sale of the KTRU transmitter. The transmitter was bought with student blanket taxes designated for a Rice student radio station. It took us a long time to save funds each year to get enough to buy a transmitter so the station could be heard farther away from the campus. I am among a group of alumni who helped run KTRU in its 650 and 1000 watt days. This is another example of the current administration’s callous disregard of what we built and they sold for some quick money. When KTRU was sold, I stopped donating to the University. It looks like they still haven’t gotten the message.
Hi, Deborah, and thanks for writing. Funding for this project was recommended by students on the Asset Liquidation Funds Appropriations committee, which is charged with distributing funds from the KTRU transmitter sale. That committee was organized by the Student Association and Graduate Student Association to solicit student ideas and proposals for how to spend $6 million from the tower and license sale to benefit students and the campus.