DENVER FIRST NATIONS CENTER

Investigations of cultural responses and social engagement are explorations of materials and personal selves. Successful employment of a material system includes community acceptance. Material selection employs physical materials, light, as well as evocative form making. In organizing material systems to encase and express space and intent, architecture must simultaneously become practical in its means and speculative in its symbolism. This studio is intended to become a means for organizing research, engaging structure, responsible material selection, cultural meaning, and meaningful community gathering spaces. These qualities are critically heightened in any community that is stress or traumatized from the kinds of catastrophes affecting our communities Immaterial: Intentions “Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain the failure but pleasure I contemplating the immensity of the attempt.” -Immanuel Kant, critique of Pure Reason To create space for communities to engage and share knowledge, design becomes an exercise in defining a quality of interior spaces or landscape. Spatial response considers the public engagement of phenomenological, textural, acoustical, and especially light. In the case of community space and libraries, the sublime experience is simultaneously functional and symbolic and encourages a sense of community.