St. Paul, Minnesota // Fall 2021
The Bordered Stitch
Scroll ↓
The importance of this room is also shown in the parti plan and section shown on the right. Here you can see how all the different spaces in the building is connected to the main fabric room through the circulation paths that border it. The circulation paths act to both separate while also connecting the spaces to the main room, similar to a needle and thread in a quilt.
The Bordered Stitch is an experiential learning center about quilting with a typology of a border located in Prospect Park. In order for the visitor to truly learn about quilting they need to experience picking out fabrics from the large variety given in any store. With all the different options given, the visitor can learn that a quilt can be used to show any and every emotion. This room holding the different quilts is shown in the perspective on the left.
Floor Plans
Level -1
In this plan of the basement floor you can see how the only set of rooms completely underground are spaces that are not vital to the visitors education of quilting. These spaces include the bathrooms, storage, mechanical room, and staff living spaces. The rooms up a half level are where the classrooms are located on the north facing windows, allowing for defused lighting and no glare to be present while they are working.
Level 1
On the main level you can see the lobby and its direct path to the main space holding the quilting fabrics. As shown here the fabrics room is the largest signifying its importance to the educational process to the visitor and their understanding of quilting. Also shown is how the building is on the border of the line of trees on the site, preserving the existing trees on the site.
Level 2
The top level shows the gathering spaces on the north side of the building and the offices on the east side of the building. The gathering space is another crucial area to further the visitors education of quilting. Here they are allowed to freely interact and converse with other visitors and staff to exchange quilting techniques and patterns to help widen the visitors variety of knowledge on quilting.
In this section perspective shown below you can see how the slanted roof allows for sunlight to enter the main fabric space even though there are trees on the hill on the south side of the building. The selected stained windows can also be shown on this roof of the main space. Adding these colors allows for additional emotions of the visitor to arise and empower them to create a quilt through these emotions.
This section perspective also shows how the main fabric space is further commanding its importance throughout the building by the extended beams. The framework of the skylight above is extended throughout the building and influencing the areas where the visitor is learning about quilting, forcing the architecture to shift to the axis of this main space to additionally impose its significance.
This perspective shows the beams interacting with the circulation paths leading to the classrooms on the lower level.
This perspective shows the beams interactions with the outdoor spaces where visitors can converse and relax.
