University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning associate professors Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann were honored to receive two awards from the AIA Michigan Design Awards and Recognitions for Park House and Shadow Pavilion.

The Park House, a residential building, addresses generic and specific spaces of residential construction. The site specifics are the adjacency of a city park on the North and a steep slope across the site. The addition integrates the existing historic house with the site. As a generic approach, the addition exploits the local zoning regulations to create an attached second residential unit allowing the addition to share utilities. The addition defers to a historic house on the front and creates a courtyard on the year. A carport and garage/workshop are located under the residential unit as the site drops away. One moves under to the carport and up to a shared deck as the building twists and bends overhead.

Shadow Pavilion is an installation at the UM Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Shadow Pavilion was designed to explore the paradox of a perforated structure where the removal of material makes a structure lighter and weaker. The pavilion is both a structure and a space made entirely of holes.

The pavilion surface is made with over 100 aluminum laser cut cones that vary in size. Beyond testing the limits of sheet aluminum, the cones will act to funnel light and sound to the interior space, offering visitors a space to take in the views and sounds of the surrounding landscape. Organizational schemes for the cones investigated the logic of phyllotaxis. In botany, phyllotaxis describes a plant’s spiral packing arrangement of its elements and as applied to the pavilion the concept limited the form but strengthened the structure.

Listen to an interview with three AIA Michigan award winners from Detroit’s NPR station, WDET, The Craig Fahle Show, from May 26, 2010.

Shadow Pavilion was partially funded by Taubman College’s Research through Making Grant program.

The AIA Michigan Design Awards, founded in the 1960s, are awarded yearly to AIA Michigan members and juried by Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. The awards are intended to recognize individuals and firms whose accomplishments have helped to foster healthy, safe and sustainable communities through good design.