SIOUX NATION ASSEMBLY HALL
[GraduateDesign 3, Instructor: Kroeker]
Known to the Dakota Sioux people as Oheyawahi, translated as “the hill much visited,” Pilot Knob is a place of historical, cultural, and environmental importance. Prior to a treaty which gave the site over to Europeans in the 19th century, the grounds were used as an important burial and ritual site for the Dakota people.
This project aims to create a cultural center for the Dakota Sioux near the Knob. The building was designed just off Pilot Knob proper (for burial ground is sacred and should not be disturbed) and situated near the Minnesota River bluffs. This position serves a second purpose, an aviary for migratory hawks , a sacred animal among the Dakota people, would be part of the program. As the Minnesota river is an important migration route, the building serves as a stop-over point and place of refuge for the birds. The cultural center offers spaces for cultural and arts-related workshops, gallery space for said workshops, a cafeteria and store, an assembly hall for the Sioux Nation, and finally an outdoor space for pow-wows.
The form of the building follows two concurrent conceptual principals - study of the techtonic culture of the Dakota People, and notions of emergent form. The two structures studied within the tectonic culture of the Dakota were the tipi and the ceremonial sweat lodge. Both use a tensile language born from the trees and saplings around the culture as they sought refuge from the environment. The primary section of this project is derived from studies of how both of these structures are assembled.
Emergent form refers to the seen and unseen forces which can shape how you design a structure. Wind patterns, solar trajectories, sources of sound and sight. All of these forces acting upon Pilot Knob informed how the structure was shaped and placed within the site. The result strives to be both culturally and environmentally gentle upon the site.
