Eugene, Oregon, USA
An idea that seems obvious and too simple can be the most relevant with subtle effect and demonstrable impact. How we create and use our built environment reflects an inherent value system for a better world. As such, three factors characterize high-performance building facades: the materials, the system (fabrication and installation), and the design.
Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall at the University of Oregon won a recent 2021 Green Good Design® Award from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum.
As with most communities in America, the University of Oregon features a rich environment of clay-based materials, namely brick and decorative terra cotta, dating to the early 20th century. With this material, the team combined innovation and common sense to create a high-performance facade system for Tykeson Hall, the new home and academic center for the College of Arts and Sciences.
The goal was to combine art, science, and technology in a way that was relevant to the college’s progressive interdisciplinary educational philosophy and create a unique yet contextualized outward expression that embodied their culture of ingenuity while evoking beautiful aspects of the region that reinforce a sense of community with an environmentally conscious mission.
This is the first campus building to include terra cotta in eighty years, melding modern cladding technology with a glazed color field of regional landscape tones. The engineered terra cotta system the company transformed is a relatively lightweight facade rain screen composed of extruded clay panels and clips for today’s tolerances required of high-performance buildings.
The team designed six-inch-wide, vertically-oriented panels with two primary lengths for ease of construction, affordability, and aesthetics and adjusted the aluminum fasteners for flexibility and regional seismic requirements. The creative process for clay panel finishing began by looking at the perception of light and color in numerous large installations like Claude Monet’s Water Lilies at the Musee de l’ Orangerie as well as similar ethereal landscapes found in the Pacific Northwest.
The team completed a series of Oregon landscape oil paintings and translated this perceptual experience by using these as a basis for terra cotta glaze options and the creation of an abstract color field accentuated by the simplified geometry.
With an algorithmic numerical system, they ensured no one color repeated next to itself within the customized 3,100 tile panel system and provided an easy-to-use roadmap for local installers. By choosing a single neutral-beige clay and using five custom color glazes instead of more costly individual through-body molds, and a matte finish to accentuate natural light variations, the team achieved desired aesthetics within a tight project budget.
All components arrived on-site with ascribed numbers ready to install. The appearance of the facade alters depending on season and solar position, with fields of subtle color attracting the light in their own way and lending the architecture a corresponding dynamic with transformative effect.
Project: Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall at the University of Oregon
Architects: OFFICE 52 Architecture
Architects of Record: Rowell Brokaw Architects
Client: The University of Oregon Photographer: Christian Columbres
