BoH [Boathouse]
Newport News, VA

The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia holds the most extensive collection of maritime objects in North America. In addition, it is also actively engaged in creating opportunities for members of the community to have hands on learning experiences with the diverse subjects of maritime study. Of these areas of study, it is said that the time-honored tradition of Boat Building is exemplary of construction craft, engineering, ecological understanding, technological and material innovation, functional architecture, and even community spirit. The proposed addition of the Mariners’ Boathouse would extend these traditions along with engaging the Museum’s mission by creating a place that is not only about hands-on experience, but is also about the understanding of the many layers of historical, scientific, ecological, and construction knowledge involved in the maritime sciences. This goal is accomplished by creating a building that is conceived, designed, and assembled based on the techniques, traditions, and innovations of boat construction, and is furthered through the creation of visitor and community experiences of nature and an active boat building and sailing culture.

This proposal is for a structure that will be evocative of the history and craft of boat building through the use of traditional and simple materials in a form evocative of its intended uses. In addition, materials will be used strategically to serve multiple spatial functions ranging from workshop to gallery to community gathering space. Another aspect of this concept of multi-functionality of use is that it helps to minimize the overall spatial need and therefore cost while allowing the building to easily respond to different needs throughout its life. As a boat’s use is integral to its design, the multi-use potential of the boathouse will be integrated into its basic spaces. This way, the building would allow for the incorporation of different activities and special functions not only throughout the day but the year as well. These additional potentials are designed as further extensions of the buildings intended use. This alludes not only to multiple uses but also to the understanding that the building is changing throughout each day, month and year. In this way, the boathouse is conceived as a gallery expansion of the existing museum’s mission that adds another level of display and interaction to the visitor’s experience, one that evolves over time as the visitor returns again and again.

The goal of the boathouse is to bring expanded functions and uses to the museum that did not previously exist; expanding the possibility of what the museum can be; creating a new public plaza for the museum and the community; integrating the building into the landscape as an accessible place for the community. Finally, by creating interior and exterior spaces that engage both the history and craft of maritime tradition in the region, the boathouse becomes a beacon for the museum.

USE (programmed spaces):
Public Access
Exhibition
Library – magazines and research area
Outdoor Gathering Spaces: decks and docks
Member Access
Boat building – small scale and large scale
Renting boats
Boat tour access
Racing R.C. model boats
Outdoor Gathering Spaces: decks and docks
Public and Member Access
Social Club – activities – actively engaged with the museum
Education and Outreach: Workshops, seminars, and lectures to be held here
Secondary Uses: Picnics, Lounging, etc
PROGRAMMED SPACE DESCRIPTION: Public Access and Member Access
The boathouse is intended to be both workshop (member access) and display (public access), and these two main areas within the building; one for the builders/ members and one for the visitors/ viewers will both interact and be contained. The building will reflect these contained and possible activities.

The boathouse is a museum exhibit that through its daily use expands the reach of the museum and becomes not only a civic institution but also a community-gathering place, a new environment in itself. The aim is to create functional spaces designed with the understanding of the process of designing, building, and testing boats of various scales while being in a museum environment. This requires the creation of two basic volumes of public/museum space and construction space. One way in which to accomplish this functionality is for the users (the builders) to be in a comfortable environment that facilitates the use of and access to any tools, references and materials they require. This could entail movable partitions, storage lockers and workspaces that can be reconfigured based on the type of work specifically being done. In addition, visitors must be able to engage in this experience and learn without disturbing the workers or being put into dangerous situations.

The threshold between the public and private spaces will be used to both facilitate the needs of the builders (storage, access to equipment, materials, and ease of use) and engage the visual experience of the visitors (the creation of visual and tactile points of interaction with both the building and the craftsman using the building; display). Using materials and finishes specific to each function and location will help to achieve the aims of having general access and specific functions occurring simultaneously.

MUSEUM EXHIBIT
A LIVING EXHIBIT: The building is conceived as an exhibit in itself, and the active, daily use of the building and it surrounding spaces is the primary focus of the exhibition. Through the creation of a public arm of the boat-building program; the building functions as a showcase exhibit of the process of boat fabrication. One of the most interesting aspects of the living exhibit concept is that with each day and project the exhibit will be constantly changing; focusing on each aspect of the process of design, construction and testing. The building will be designed to highlight this changing aspect.

The building should be viewed as a destination outside of its primary function as a place to build. The primary exhibition and construction uses combine with the secondary uses of leisure, gathering and viewing the surrounding landscape. These secondary uses could include picnics, sunbathing, and even evening movies projected onto the building in summer. These types of secondary uses will help create a dynamic of different people with different interests coming together, a community space.

CONSTRUCTION
In order to fully engage the idea of the new building as a tribute to the craftsmanship of boat making, it is proposed that the new building explores and utilizes the fabrication methods of boat building and the craftsmen that will inhabit the space. Materials are to be conventional and unpretentious that help further ground the building on its site and in its historical context. The sea, sailing and the process of building boats has been the backbone of this region for hundreds of years and now it would become an intrinsic element of the museum, in use, material and form.

The craftsman is the primary user and also the primary participant in the construction of the boathouse. By using fabrication techniques used in boat building, the users of the Boathouse become the builders. The building therefore reflects its users and uses, its location and historical context. The craftsmen will have the opportunity to fully contribute to different aspects of the construction of the new building. The intention will be to utilize their abilities to the maximum so the new building reflects its users to a degree. As an addition to this construction, it is proposed that this process is documented and displayed as part of its own exhibit. This concept could be extended to the daily uses of the boathouse as it used after its completion. Thus, the building becomes an active and vital continuation of the Museum’s collection, space and exhibition.
The building as a changing artifact in the museum’s collection.

LANDSCAPE & NATURE
The new building becomes integrated with its surroundings and is open to them thereby creating spatial elements like outside plazas that will facilitate its use as gathering points.
Landscape – a literal translation, but also a new community landscape created by the building and the way the architecture interfaces with its surroundings. This allows for a new social space, with the Boathouse and the Mariners’ Museum as it’s focal center.

CONCLUSION
Through the creation of a rigorous framework and by working closely with the staff and users of the museum in understanding the goals of the space, the simple structure of the boathouse has the potential to be a vital extension of the museum with unlimited possibility.

It is a public plaza.
It is a museum.
It is a landscape.
It is an exhibit.
It is a community.
It is a machine for building boats.
It is the Mariners’ Museum Boathouse.