Photo: Miller Hull Partnership

The TAF Community Learning Space will serve as a technology drop-in center and headquarters for TAF (Technology Access Foundation), a non-profit which works to provide technology and life-skills training to minority and disadvantaged youth in Seattle. The facility will also serve as a public community center for the local White Center neighborhood in which it is located.  Material reuse is being incorporated into the project not only as an environmental sustainability measure, but also as a means of connecting the new facility to the cultural fabric of the White Center community. For example, timber beams from a former public housing project adjacent to the site will form the pedestrian bridge leading the building’s entrance. Solid core doors from nearby office buildings are being designed into a striking wood paneled wall along one of the building’s main corridor. Fire hoses from local fire departments will provide a colorful, eclectic finish to office partitions. When the project nears completion, workshops will be held, bringing together community members and local artists to create installations out of community-donated materials.

Like other sustainability elements in the project’s green design, the reuse components are viewed as a way to allow the building to serve as a teaching tool to TAF’s students and the wider community.  The TAF Community Learning Space aims to be a state of the art learning environment in which material reuse provides a tangible and dynamic connection to ideas of environmental and cultural sustainability.

Reclaimed Materials (by application): Doors and Windows, Fire Hoses, Wood/Lumber

Key Info
Location: Seattle, WA
Date of Completion: In-progress (anticipated completion 2012)
Architect: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Reuse Consultant: Public Architecture
Client: Technology Access Foundation (TAF)

Learn more
Public Architecture Project Page