LOMA ALTA TRAILHEAD RESEARCH LEARNING CENTER

Publication Date

Spring 4-22-2026

Presentation Length

30 minutes

College

O'More College of Architecture & Design

Department

Architecture

Student Level

Undergraduate

Faculty Mentor

Brent Hunter

Presentation Type

Gallery

Summary

Integration: A seamless merging of architecture, landscape, and learning. The Research Learning Center embodies this idea by dissolving boundaries between the built environment, the desert ecosystem, and the people who inhabit it. Sited directly along the trail, the building invites movement through its core encouraging visitors, hikers, and researchers alike to pass through and engage with the site. This gesture transforms the center into a living part of the trail network rather than a destination apart from it, symbolizing the integration of research and everyday experience. Circulation flows through classrooms, labs, and observation areas connected by glass partitions, allowing transparency between public and research spaces. This openness fosters curiosity and collective learning, embodying the project’s goal of social and educational integration. Environmental systems are equally unified. The building’s form and materials work in concert with the desert climate; high thermal mass rammed earth walls stabilize temperature, cross ventilation cools interior spaces, and deep overhangs and suspended fins provide shade while animating light. The terracotta fins, angled to block or capture the sun’s intensity, respond like desert flora expanding, contracting, and adapting to the shifting environment. Materially, the design integrates with the desert itself. Rammed earth walls mirror the site’s tones and textures, while terracotta fins recall local building traditions. Even water is woven into the architecture: subtle reveals in the walls collect scarce rainfall and direct it to surrounding vegetation, nurturing microclimates that cool and sustain the site. Through these layered strategies, the Research Learning Center becomes more than a building, it becomes an integrated system of ecology, material, and human experience. It stands as a living demonstration of harmony between desert resilience and architectural adaptation.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS