Larkin Gibbs Memorial Pavilion

MedCamps is a camp for children with various disabilities who are unable to partipate in conventional summer camps. The camp operates throughout the summer and designs a camp specially suited to accomodate a different type of disability each week. The campus of the camp was falling into disrepair, so our undergraduate Design/Build studio was commissioned to design and build a space for them that would allow them to gather and would allow all campers to take part in camp ceremonies, no matter their ability. In ten weeks total, we put forth an immense amount of work to create this real world project in what was a truly immersive experience.

Watch Brad Deal's award-winning short film about this project here.

Most of the materials in the project were repurposed, such as a gabion wall made of discarded bricks and a canopy of trusses made of recycled steel sucker rod. The pavilion also considers the environmental issues of the immediate site, circumventing an existing tree to preserve it and including a water feature that aerates the adjacent lake to maintain the health of the ecosystem.

This project is a winner of the AIA Louisiana 2016 Award of Merit, the AIA Louisiana 2016 Member’s Choice Award and the AIA Gulf States 2017 Merit Award.

architectural photography courtesy of Henry McCoy