A Sequence of Attunement - Stillmark Institute of Coastal Ecology

Publication Date

Spring 4-22-2026

Presentation Length

30 minutes

College

<-- Please Select One -->

Department

Architecture

Student Level

Undergraduate

Faculty Mentor

Caleb Walder

Presentation Type

Article

Summary

Attunement begins from the understanding that the project's site, Lowell Point, AK, is a landscape shaped by forces that must be read before they can be occupied. Wind, tide, weather, and seasonal light continually alter how the site is approached and understood, making awareness essential to both public experience and scientific work. Rather than separating visitors from these conditions, the project uses architecture to gradually prepare them to notice and interpret them through movement, threshold, and repeated spatial change. Two primary masses divide the program between public orientation and exhibition in the north and research and conservation in the south, while an educational spine reconnects them as a shared zone of learning and transition. As visitors move north to south, shifts in compression, release, light, and view progressively align them with the dynamic rhythms already present on the site. Material selections reinforce this sequence: exposed slate and greywack aggregate concrete recall glacial ground and shoreline geology, pale sitka spruce mass timber establishes sheltered interior warmth, and weathered metal surfaces extend the language of the exterior cladding into quieter interior moments of reflection. Together, the building functions as both research infrastructure and a framework for learning how to move with the forces it exists to study.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS