Designers from Archimania created a building for the Girls Inc. Youth Farm in Frayser, Tennessee, a Memphis neighborhood. The nonprofit agriculture center functions as a teaching center and youth development hub. The project needed to stretch the client’s budget while providing large classroom and gathering spaces, serving the site and landscape, and offering ample shading. The resulting award-winning structure uses red wood slats and sheet metal roofing, referencing nearby poultry barns. A book, Out There: New Architecture Across America, presents case studies showing how newer firms draw inspiration from place, local heritage, and the community role of buildings. It also emphasizes resourcefulness and material experimentation, noting that small projects can create major impacts in underpopulated areas.
"Designers from the regional firm Archimania sought a clever solution for the Girls Inc. Youth Farm, a nonprofit operating an agriculture center that served as a teaching center and hub for youth development. Firm founder Todd Walker can spin many narratives about how projects connect to the region. There's the urban-rural connection in Memphis, the history of hardwood construction, and the cultural nexus created by the Mississippi River."
"But in seeking to design a project that stretched the budget of this local institution and best served the multifaceted mission of the client—offering large spaces for classrooms and gathering students, serving the site and landscape, and providing ample shading—the building took a certain familiar shape. The award-winning project, capped with red wood slats, covered in sheet metal roofing, ended up referencing the poultry barns that dot the surrounding area."
"A new book, Out There: New Architecture Across America, makes the case that when it comes to evolving forms and styles in American architecture, a new generation of firms is drawing inspiration from not just place and local architectural heritage, but the place a building like the Girls Inc. Youth Farm will play in the community. And along with an increased focus on resourcefulness, and material experimentation ranging from rammed earth to bamboo, it underscores how impact comes in many sizes."
"Collecting project highlights from 50 architectural firms, the book focuses on practices from regional cities and small towns. Often, this means firms playing with varied building types, from residential work in isolated landscapes to hybrid buildings for clients focused on civic, social, and environmental causes."
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