US architecture studio GBBN preserved and expanded a 19th-century home in Erie, Pennsylvania into an educational facility with a glass bridge connection and metal-clad, barn-like structure.

Completed in April 2022 for Pennsylvania State University Behrend, the Federal House Renovation & Addition project saw the conversion of the oldest brick building in the Harborcreek Township into a modern educational facility.

Originally built in 1883 by cobbler Thomas Bonnell, the two-storey structure housed his 11-person family, served as a stagecoach stop and was later used as a safe house on the Underground Railroad.

The renovation and expansion by GBBN Pittsburgh preserved the original house and added a contemporary barn-shaped structure that mitigates the steep site.

The 11,000-square-foot (1,021 square metre) building was completed for the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE), an outreach effort of Pennsylvania State University Behrend’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The addition includes offices, classrooms and conference and event space for the program.

“What was once an unused, stand-alone structure on campus has become a place – a unique destination sought out by Penn State Behrend students and administrators,” said GBBN principal Matthew Plecity.

The structure features two conceptual elements: the barn and the bridge.

The addition – known as The Barn – reinvents a gabled house archetype with a playful roofline and angled floor plate that wraps around a courtyard to preserve the site’s existing trees. The Barn’s height and proportions correspond to the original house.

“Ultimately, we wanted the Barn to complement the original structure – not replicate it,” the studio said.

The barn envelope has a standing seam infinity roof that wraps around the eave and down the exterior wall.

The dark grey zinc panels reference the colour of the original roof and contrast the orange-hued brick, while large expanses of glass at the entrance and stairwell create “glowing beacons of activity” according to the studio.

The other element – The Bridge – connects the original Federal House with the addition.

The double-sided glass structure has a thin swooping roofline and lightly touches the original structure to preserve the house’s visual outline.

“Glass provides transparency, and from the campus side of the project, people can see the façade of Federal House through the glass,” the studio noted.

The facade design was softened by warm wooden materials and colours that mark the entrance and vertical circulation.

According to the studio, the wood elements serve two purposes – acting as a “jacket liner” for thermal insulation and maintaining the “homey feeling” of the historic structure.

The building wraps around an exterior courtyard to protect it from prevailing winds, snow drifts and adjacent busy streets, while the glazed addition affords staff members views of the young students in the courtyard.

In addition to preserving the original structure, the studio repurposed a black walnut tree that had to be removed due to insect infestation into custom details within the project.

“We repurposed the tree into wood floors, fireplace mantles and a custom, live-edge, 20-foot conference table that is the heart of the renovated Federal House,” the studio said.

CORE fosters youth development for K-12 students who live in poverty through evidence-based mentoring and education programs

Other similar additions include 1100 Architect’s extension of a 19th-century stone house for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Machado Silvetti’s glazed addition to an 18th-century house owned by a signer of the Declaration of Independence in Virginia.

The photography is by Brad Feinknopf.

Project credits:

Design team: Matthew Plecity, Stephen Mrdjenovich, Mel Ngami, Anne Chen, Danny Luegering, Chas Wiederhold, Liz Schmidt, Mark Lee
MEP engineering: Tower Engineering
Structural engineering: WBCM
Civil engineering: Urban Engineers
Landscape: Merritt Chase
Contractor: EE Austin
Sustainability consultant: evolveEA

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Dezeen School Shows: students and faculty members from VCUarts Qatar present a light installation called Virga, which was built in collaboration with design studio Atelier La Juntana and is featured as Dezeen’s latest school show.

The group project was informed by virga clouds and is made up of a collection of lights that form a collaborative installation, which explores the intersection of steam bending and digital fabrication.

Each project was designed by a student or faculty member from the VCUarts Qatar MFA in Design program before the group travelled to Spain to produce the project during a wood-bending workshop with Atelier La Juntana.

VCUarts Qatar

Institution: VCUarts Qatar
Organisation: Atelier La Juntana
Designers: Rab McClure, Marco Bruno, Giovanni Innella, Stella Colaleo, Reema Abu Hassan, Ayah Elnour, Gabrielle Tesfaye, Somaia Dorzadeh, Sidra Sohail, Steffi Braganza, Tasnim Rahimah, Tharwa Dalansi, Adriane de Souza, Destarte Prieto, Hind Al Saad, Mashael Almusleh, Moom Thahinah, Naima Almajdobah, Sara Alafifi
Workshop leaders and material research: Daniel Gutiérrez Adán, Armor Gutiérrez Rivas and Nertos Gutiérrez Rivas
Collaborators: xLab: Levi Hammet, Mohammad Suleiman and Hiathem El-Hammali – light source design, coding, interaction design, kinetic design; Sayuri Kurotsu – fabric construction and tailoring; Applelec – light source components and fabrication; Campovisible – photography; and Qatar Foundation

School statement:

“Faculty and students from VCUarts Qatar, working in collaboration with Atelier La Juntana, designed and fabricated a collection of glowing sculptural forms made from steam-bent wood, 3D-printed connectors, LED lights and tailored fabric.

“Designed for disassembly and portability, the collection will be exhibited next in the VCUarts Qatar Gallery in Doha, suspended from motorised pulleys and equipped with laser range finders to create an interactive, kinetic installation, subtly shifting and rearranging – rising and falling, dimming and growing brighter in response to the passage of time and the presence and movement of gallery visitors.”

Virga light installation

“Inspired by virga cloud formations – clouds found in hot climates, characterised by trailing streaks of rain that evaporate before reaching the ground – the project invites free association, fosters reverie, and inspires imaginative speculation.

“Each cloud form was designed by a separate student or faculty member from the VCUarts Qatar MFA in Design program, in preparation for the eight-day wood-bending workshop at Atelier La Juntana, a teaching and fabrication facility on the north coast of Spain.

“During the workshop, thin, paired strips of wood, cut from locally sourced ash trees, were trimmed to size, sanded, soaked overnight in water, heated for several hours in a steam chamber, and then bent into digitally-fabricated moulds.

“When assembled, the bent-wood curves create a family of related but distinct forms, each lit by a custom-fabricated LED light source, made-to-order by UK lighting and signage firm Applelec.

“Each individually tailored fabric diffuser obscures the light source and scatters the light, resulting in the collection of softly glowing cloud forms.

“Exploring the steam bending process to push the boundaries of the material in pursuit of expressive geometry has been challenging but very rewarding.

“The project is part of the MFA-on-the-GO Field Study initiative, a distinctive feature of the VCUarts Qatar graduate program. Each year students and faculty travel together to conduct embedded workshops with expert artists, designers, fabricators and industry partners, producing tangible artefacts that are collectively exhibited afterward.

“In recent years the MFA program has worked with glassblowers in England, with felt makers in the Netherlands, with metalworkers in Morocco and with ceramicists and computational designers in Italy.

“Field Study projects have been showcased most recently in Venice, during the 2021 Venice Biennale, and in the Rossana Orlandi Gallery, Milan, during Milan Design Week.”

To view more about VCUarts Qatar, visit its website.

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and VCUarts Qatar. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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“Sometimes you find ideas from places you least expect,” writes Turkish industrial designer Pelin Özbalci, on her LinkedIn. “That happened to me when I saw a video explaining how an ancient Chinese waist fan worked. It was simple yet incredibly clever, and I wanted to apply the idea to another product: a side table.”

Özbalci worked out a simple, elegant way for a hinged surface to be held rigid.

“The mechanism works with the help of a central pivot and a sliced round surface linked together with a mesh underneath them – and a 90-degree rotation. When rotating the surface to make the slice direction perpendicular to the table, the supporting piece in the middle holds the surface straight. Rotating back to make the slice direction parallel to the table, the sliced surface bends and hangs from two sides.”

“The result: a piece of furniture that can be used as a statement piece until the surface is rotated to become a side table.”

I’d love to see Özbalci explore this mechanism further, in multiple environments: Kitchen, RV, tiny house, et cetera.

Also, Özbalci, if you’re reading this: Please do send the link to the original video that inspired you. I’m sure it’s a translation issue, but I can’t find anything for “Chinese waist fan” and would love to see the original mechanism.

Featuring contributions from Animal Collective, production by Sensei Bueno and vocals from StemsMusic Choir, serpentwithfeet’s new track “The Hands” proves once again how adept the R&B artist is at creating rich, evocative compositions that still leave space. The minimal track appears during the closing credits of A24’s new film, The Inspection, which is based on director Elegance Bratton’s experiences as a gay man in the Marine Corps. The film’s score was composed by Animal Collective. “‘The Hands’ is a devotional song,” says serpentwithfeet (aka Josiah Wise). “By the film’s end, Ellis French has a strong sense of self but doesn’t lose his sensitivity or optimism. I wanted to reflect that lyrically and musically.”

Published by Karma, Daisy Chain is a 104-page hardcover catalogue that celebrates the work of NYC-based artist (and CH favorite) Kathleen Ryan’s Bad Fruit series, for which she embraces decorative crafts from the past along with nature, humor and irony. Ryan’s large-scale sculptures of bejeweled but decaying cherries, lemons, peaches and grapes (and even jack-o-lanterns) are at once beautiful and monstrous, and play with ideas about value. Along with compelling imagery, the monograph includes essays by Bob Nickas, Shannon Mattern and Heather Davis.