REELBAC
Newport, OR
Bioregional Activity Center
Square Footage: 15,000 SF
Bioregional Activity Center
Square Footage: 15,000 SF
The city of Newport has always found its identity from the ocean. Located on the central coast of Oregon state, the town encircles Yaquina bay which acts as an estuary between the pacific ocean and the correspondingly named Yaquina river. Before the region was settled by Spanish explorers, the native Yaqo’n (ya-CO-na) people relied on the water for oysters, salmon, and river vegetation. The city grew quickly due to the economic potential of the location and the protection the bay offered from the hostile ocean after railways improved access to the
isolated town. Today, Newport is still very dependent upon tourism, timber, and fishing industries. The lack of consistent economic stability has slowed the growth of the city in recent years and as a result, job
opportunities have slowed.
isolated town. Today, Newport is still very dependent upon tourism, timber, and fishing industries. The lack of consistent economic stability has slowed the growth of the city in recent years and as a result, job
opportunities have slowed.
This bioregional activity center is a proposed amendment to a community center that was commissioned in 2019 by the city of Newport. The proposal is located upon an inland section of land that currently acts as the city’s fairgrounds; directly adjacent to Newport High School. The site is extensive, totalling over 6 acres of buildable property, but the proposal for this building replaces the existing dilapidated event center in the southwest corner of the site.
The goal of this building is to create a new economic industry for the city by introducing a bioregional construction material to research and develop. Taking inspiration from contemporary ocean technology, Newport’s Reel Bioregional Activity Center (REELBAC) attempts to create an environment in which the ocean can pull Newport’s community back towards its resources and beauty. The building contains laboratories to professionally study new bioregional resources, and educational spaces to display new technology to the community and investors. Several classrooms are mixed in with the labs to bring the next generation of Newport’s community into the process; accelerating a multigenerational approach to a new industry. Education also is allowed to flourish in direct relationship to the community in an interpretive event space meant to display new artwork and scientific breakthroughs through a gallery and a presentation space.
To achieve this effect, REELBAC employs an experimental structural system that pays homage to the formerly bustling ocean industry by recycling unused gantry cranes to suspend the program off of the ground, reducing the building’s footprint on the land. By raising the building off the ground plane, vegetation and native plants are able to reclaim their homes and create a natural garden for visitors to experience and appreciate. Decommissioned fishing nets envelop the building’s circulation paths in a permeable facade that leaves walkers uneasy when not inside the safety of an enclosed space. Timber strips spaced evenly on clt wall panels stand as tribute to the commercial shipping containers the building modules are inspired by. Common steel shipping containers are unsustainable for the environment, so reimagining the space they create using Newport’s bioregional resources creates a polarizing atmosphere between the wooden modules and the steel cranes that are accustomed to lifting containers of their own material family.
In the interior spaces, exposed eelgrass insulation creates a warm and elemental atmosphere that is supported by exposed light timber; mirroring the experience of a natural meditation space. The structural steel that suspends the buildings off of the gantry cranes remains exposed inside the buildings as well, serving as a strong material contrast, and a reminder to visitors of how contemporary technology and natural bioresources can harmonize without the destruction or disregard to the other.
REELBAC reclaims the old event center’s building footprint in a modest move that supports the cranes and erodes the excess concrete for plant life to regain. The demolition of most of the old foundation augments the flattened site and creates pockets where people can interact with the plantlife underneath the building. The circulation from the street to the building should feel fluid and uninterrupted when approaching the site as if the building is transparent. The space between buildings allows sunlight to filter down to the ground level where the plants will reach up towards the building and rain water will pool in natural ponds where the shadows are the strongest.
