Karamuk Kuo creates jagged addition to Houston architecture school

Swiss architecture studio Karamuk Kuo has designed an extension to the Rice School of Architecture in Texas composed of "linear forms that slip and slide", with facades wrapped in glass and terracotta.

The project – named the William T Cannady Hall for Architecture – is located on the Rice University campus in Houston, along its historic quadrangle ringed by brick buildings.

The project involved designing a large extension to an existing building, known as MD Anderson Hall, which was originally designed in 1947 by Staub & Rather. The building received an update by British architects James Stirling and Michael Willford in the 1980s.

The latest update called for a new building to foster "architectural production, research, and exhibition".

Karamuk Kuo conceived a two-storey addition that is highly contemporary yet draws upon the historic context. The project is the first in America for the Zurich-based firm, which is led by architects Jeannette Kuo and Ünal Karamuk.

Encompassing 22,000 square feet (2,044 square metres), the new building has an irregular, jagged plan that steps around a mature tree and other elements on the site. Part of the building sits directly over an existing arcade, supported by metal pilotis.

The remainder of the freestanding extension features a cantilevered upper level, also supported by the beams, with an external stairway that leads to a courtyard.

"One of the design challenges was integrating Cannady Hall into Rice's landscape of long, narrow brick buildings while preserving an iconic live oak tree on site," the team said.

"Karamuk Kuo embraced this challenge by breaking down the building into linear forms that slip and slide, creating a dynamic relationship between indoors and outdoors."

The building is topped with a distinctive sawtooth roof that "echoes the industrial vocabulary of fabrication spaces".

For the facades, the team used metal panels and vast stretches of glass on the ground level. The upper portion of the building is clad in terracotta battens.

The terracotta is meant to be "both contemporary and historically resonant, respecting Rice University's material legacy while advancing sustainable architecture", the studio said.

Inside, the building contains airy spaces filled with natural light. Double-height voids and interior glazed walls enable sight lines between the upper and lower levels.

The ground level holds a fabrication shop, gallery and pinup spaces, and support areas. Upstairs, one finds open work areas, a model shop and additional exhibition space.

The architects left the steel framework and building systems exposed, enabling students to observe the inner workings of a building. The steel framework was envisioned as a sustainable element, as it can be recycled.

"Its bolted steel frame allows for disassembly and reuse, contributing to its forward-thinking, sustainable ethos," the team said.

In addition to Cannady Hall, the Rice School of Architecture also renovated its existing Anderson Hall – a project overseen by Chicago studio Kwong Von Glinow. The studio designed several new spaces in the building, such as a welcome centre, a faculty and staff lounge, and a forum with circular wooden seating.

Other architecture school buildings in America include a Nebraska building by NADAAA and HDR that features mass timber and translucent panels, and a University of Michigan building by Preston Scott Cohen that has a sawtooth roof and ironspot-brick cladding.

The photography of Cannady Hall is by Iwan Baan, unless otherwise stated. 

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