Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
While exploring the idea of designing an “emotional surface,” Texas A&M students in Gabriel Esquivel’s spring 2009 architecture studio developed a new look for the terminal at College Station’s Easterwood Airport.
“The studio discourse wants to shift the formal critical architecture paradigm of thinking to feeling,” said Esquivel, assistant professor of architecture, in his studio blog, with the aim of continuing the development of the students’ design sensibility and expertise.
For their final projects, students created designs of atmospheric installations at Easterwood’s gates; students asked plenty of questions along the way.
“Why do we design airports, an important part in the process of mass flying, with such a lack of excitement?” asked studio member Ryan Withrow on his blog. “Airline passengers are forced to wait in a shopping mall-like environment complete with drab retail, food courts, long, bland walkways, and uncomfortable chairs. The whole environment is uncomfortable,” he said.
He added that an airport should be designed to give passengers the same feelings of excitement and anticipation that early airplane travelers once felt.
“The program for this addition is incredibly loose and undefined, giving us as designers room to roam and explore,” said Withrow.
Esquivel’s blog, which includes some of the studio’s final Easterwood designs, is available at theoremas-gabe00fab.blogspot.com.
- Posted: June 17, 2009-
