The spring 2019 architecture studio project site is a small slab (10’x12’) on the banks of Irish Bayou, in Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The project is a small shade pavilion and elevated outlook on the site of a former picnic pavilion destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The strategy developed by the studio prioritizes the wetland views and desire for shade that the fishers, crabbers, birders, and NWR staff expressed throughout the design process.

The scheme employs typical structural strategies of storm prone Gulf Coast communities and transcends those conventions with an intricate screen design that addresses short term site needs while also providing future uses as the site changes with rising sea levels.

The project's research explored innovative ways to use sheet steel in coastal projects. Whereas the approach to structure was minimal and efficient in time and resources, more design energy, fabrication time, and material intensity were invested in the invention of this new system.

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Workhaus provided consultation and assistance to the studio design team and Small Center staff in investigating methods of cutting, folding, and connecting steel to create complex, three dimensional, and site responsive strategies to programmatic needs. The primary functions of the steel screen on this project site was to serve as a shading device, and beacon to draw visitors to the site and foster connections with the refuge.

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The project will be fully installed and completed in 2020.