Relevance

Like our ScrapHouse design campaign, the TAF Community Learning Space in part by an environmental awareness and the need to design more sustainably. But it is a building that is also shaped by larger social concerns. The TAF Community Learning Space will be home to a Seattle-area nonprofit organization called the Technology Access Foundation (TAF). Established in 1996, TAF responds to the lack of quality education and access to technology for minority and disadvataged youth in the Seattle area (King County). Through its programs, TAF provides technical and computer skills training to this population, instilling them with the critical thinking and technology skills that they will need to thrive in today's world. With this new center, TAF will be able to expand its programs and its reach.

The building also addresses another problem, prevelant in far too many communities, the lack of access to adequate community resources. Through a unique public-private partnership between King County and TAF, the facility will not only serve as the headquarters for TAF but a public community center. The local--and currently underserved--White Center community will have access to a technologically-advanced facility, unlike any other in the county.

Prototypical Design

Public Architecture was recruited by King County, who had seen ScrapHouse, to work on the project. We assisted TAF with identifying and selecting The Miller|Hull Partnership as the project architect. Consistent with its 1% pledge, Miller|Hull donated a percentage of its time throughout the pre-design phase of the project. Inspired in part by ScrapHouse, Public Architecture is exploring with Miller|Hull the ways in which material reuse can be woven into the building. Utilized in multiple capacities, from walls to flooring to furniture, the salvaged materials in this project are a means of both environmental and community sustainability. Salvaged materials represent the ultimate form of recycling. These materials -- as well as other "green" aspects of the building -- will be incorporated into TAF's science education programs, allowing the building itself to be used as a teaching tool. And through actively sourcing materials from locally demolished buildings, the physical fabric of the community will be incorporated into the building. Closer to the completion of the building, workshops will be held, bringing together community members and local artists to create installations for the building out of community-donated materials.

Construction is slated to begin in mid 2009.

Comprehensive Advocacy

Public Architecture is working with King County to coordinate various outreach efforts, bringing a greater community involvement into the process of building the facility. In addition to these efforts locally, we are documenting the overall salvage material procurement and integration process. Ultimately, an accounting of our efforts will be dissemniated on a broad scale through a variety of means and other advocacy efforts around the incorporation of material reuse in the design industry will continue to be pursued. To that end, Public Architecture has recently formed a partnership with the Building Materials Reuse Association (a leading nationwide organization specializing in issues around deconstruction and reuse), StopWate.org, the California Integrated Waste Management Board, and the US Environmental Protection Agency to produce a Design for Reuse Primer. The primer will focus on case study projects involving material reuse and offer tools as to how to further integrate material reuse into standard building process. In the end, we hope to see what began as a simple demonstration project lead to a far reaching movement within the sustainable design industry.