At approximately 40,000 sq. ft., THE EDGE: Afrofuturist Creative Space will be a place to create, collect, preserve, commemorate, study, and exhibit significant objects and artifacts of the Black diaspora, and to provide related educational services in order to increase public knowledge, acknowledge Black contributions and sacrifices, and stimulate creative activity and expression. Designed using scholar Jack Travis' "10 Principles for Black Space Design" for the non-profit NWA Black Heritage.
Project Statement
THE EDGE: Afrofuturist Creative Space in the Black Historic District project is a museum concept designed with the application of the Jack Travis' 10 Principles of BlackSpace design, the Blackspace Manifesto, and Afrofuturism concepts.
The EDGE is an experiment in emerging BlackSpace design concepts, emphasizing the metaphysical aspects of space through an Afrofuturist lens. Starting with Jack Travis’ 10 Principles of BlackSpace design, the design team conceived a "Baobab Grove" design, with phase 1 including an innovative and ecologically sensitive mass timber spiralled ramp parking deck as representative of a squat, low baobab tree. The taller, slimmer Baobab form is the main inaugural museum building - a mass-timber column and beam structured, 5-story facility which includes nearly 40,000 square feet of exhibition, administrative, and educational areas, a stargazing rooftop terrace, and two opposing mass timber cantilever structures which host public event space. The landscape design includes preservation of various existing old-growth hardwood species, a reflection pool, three production gardens, meandering pathways and pedestrian bridges lined with flowering, ornamental and edible vegetation and a greenhouse, ensuring a constant supply of locally appropriate continuous plantings. The building hosts a cafe' with interior and patio dining in support of strong indoor and outdoor connections. There is also a multi-floor reading room complete with a monumental staircase and floor to ceiling bookshelves. In pursuit of optimal ecological performance, the design sought to apply all of the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence’s 10 principles of design excellence. This framework “informs progress toward a zero-carbon, healthy, just, resilient, and equitable built environment.” (SOURCE: AIA's Framework for Design Excellence)
