UL Lafayette students to design and build 5-acre research and entertainment park

A 5-acre patch of land near Arnaudville, La., will become a hub for education, science conferences, sustainability workshops and cultural festivals thanks, in part, to the expertise of University of Louisiana at Lafayette students.
 
The Levity and Les Deux Bayous S.T.E.A.M. Park site is being designed by UL Lafayette School of Architecture and Design undergraduate and graduate students, who will also help to construct buildings. The multidisciplinary project will include architecture, industrial design and interior design students.
 
The University’s contributions are being coordinated by the School of Architecture and Design’s Building Institute, which facilitates experiential learning. Students complete community service-oriented projects that encompass coursework and research; collaboration with clients, contractors, suppliers and engineers; and, upon completion of a given project, scholarly publications.
 
For the Levity and Les Deux Bayous S.T.E.A.M. Park, students have created a working master plan for what will become a research and entertainment campground where music and culture intersect with science, technology, entertainment, art and mathematics. 
 
Among plans for the site are a planetarium, an amphitheater, a sculpture garden, a community garden, an artist’s residence, a farmer’s market, a wood shop, a native food forest, a meditation sensory, a camping area, a café and a roastery. 
 
But first comes the Aqua House, a roughly 70-foot by 30-foot bath house that will have showers and a restroom. Ground is expected to be broken on the innovative building sometime this spring or summer. 
 
The Aqua House will feature modular blocks formed from landfill-bound plastic as a primary material. The blocks are designed to fit together “like Lego pieces,” explained Geoff Gjertson, an architecture professor who directs the Building Institute.
 
“Those building blocks are indicative of an intentional focus by the students to challenge norms for typical public bath houses and restrooms,” he said. 
 
The interior will have porcelain tile floors and porcelain tile walls that will stretch upward to about the height of an average person. Beyond that height, the porcelain will be topped with the plastic blocks, “materials that are not only durable, but easy to maintain,” Gjertson explained.
 
“And the structure is designed to be less dark and confined than many public bath houses and restrooms, more open and airier with more natural light,” he added.
 
The Building Institute is collaborating with two nonprofits to complete the steam park. Levity, a think tank and multidisciplinary space, and Les Deaux Bayous S.T.E.A.M. Park which focuses on science, technology, entertainment, arts and mathematics, cultural preservation, and environmental stewardship. The Levity and Les Deux Bayous S.T.E.A.M. Park development is part of an ongoing push to establish Arnaudville as a cultural hub.
 
It’s an effort to which the Building Institute, which was founded in 2003, has contributed before. Among the 18 multi-semester projects that the institute has completed with help from more than 600 students is the House of Cards. The 256-square-foot artist’s retreat in Arnaudville sits on land along nearby Bayou Bourbeau.
 
“The knowledge, experience and training our students gain during thousands of hours spent working on these projects is essential to their education and development, and invaluable training for their careers. The byproduct are facilities that benefit our community,” Gjertson said.
 
Photo caption: UL Lafayette students will help design and build 5-acre research and entertainment park in Arnaudville, La. Ground is expected to be broken on the site’s first structure, the Aqua House (above), this spring or summer. Credit: Courtesy rendering