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There is no shortage of wild space around Austin, and building a campsite doesn’t sound too challenging. That is, until you add electricity, running water, and temperature control and invite hundreds of people. Oh, and make it sustainable.
Shield Ranch, a 6,400 acre site on Barton Creek, broke ground this month for renovations that will provide year-round protection from the elements to campers of all ages when it comes to family, educational, spiritual, and even corporate retreats . A dining pavilion and 11 sleeping structures are largely integrated into the landscape and work inconspicuously with breezes and the course of the sun. Renderings characterize the huts as simple sheds on stilts: straight stacks of vertical wooden piles, solar-clad roofs and empty rooms.
When construction work is complete, the space can accommodate up to 78 and 200 people. Shield Ranch welcomes many types of groups, but the summer is a special time for the long-time beneficiaries of the property: campers with El Ranchito, a program for the Austin city kids of low-income families to get out in the great outdoors. The rustic but innovative new accommodations will not only accommodate you during your absence, but will also be a good example of sustainability that you can exemplify in your more urban home.
“This gives you the opportunity to really immerse yourself in nature,” explains architect Arthur Andersson, pointing out the sustainable importance of sustainable design with minimal impact on the land. “The camp’s programs have to do with … seeing and experiencing nature, and we wanted the structures to be part of this whole dialogue. It’s a nice way to think about life. “
Andersson / Wise, the studio charged with the deceptively complicated project, began building this design ethos with a foot deep in the site’s past. The Shield family started their vast Hill Country property nearly a century ago, in 1938, and have passed it on in four generations. In the 1990s, the family entered over 90 percent of the land in maintenance easements between the Nature Conservatory and the suddenly growing city of Austin, keeping it privately but entrusting its longevity to these dedicated units. The goal of Andersson / Wise (who, according to Andersson, are known as architects who build “as if air conditioning hadn’t been invented”) was to think about how the land would have been used when the Shield Ranch was founded , and make sure these practices carry it gracefully into the future.
First, Andersson lists, it stayed cool. He talks about the history of buildings in the south and recalls his early career in New Orleans, where residential buildings made use of wraparound spaces and careful window placement in relation to the scorching sun. The sleeping quarters at Shield Ranch open to the breeze to welcome the cooler air from the shady overhangs.
Next, the design had to incorporate water in such a way that the natural landscape wasn’t too compromised or wasted unnecessarily. Fortunately, this solution falls from the sky. Working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the architecture and consulting team developed the state’s first approved public water system that provides guests with rainwater. In the vicinity of the sleeping quarters, waterless evaporative toilets are installed (which collect the waste underground while stabilizing and minimizing it with a flow of air through a chimney, which is essentially heated by the sun). After proving the effectiveness of the system to a meticulous company like TCEQ, Andersson hopes it will lower the bar for similar systems in future locations.
Looking back only shows the need to design for the future and let the buildings take root in their surroundings. The cedar bandage turns gray with age and exposure, which hopefully means that it will only look better as it ages. A steel structure holds the cabins strong against storms and is manufactured off-site and neatly brought to assembly. Because of its galvanized surface, the steel does not need painting for decades, if not a century.
“This type of architecture or construction isn’t so much about style or taste or about being impressive,” says Andersson. “It’s more environmentally friendly. In other words, they are background buildings. “
Even if the buildings take a back seat, fixed structures in which tents would stand provide an infrastructure for the campsite to build a central community. Just as a business coach might say that you have to spend money to make money, sustainability is often best achieved through intensive up-front resources with a long lifespan. It would make sense, we all hope, that a building inspired by the last century will easily survive into the next.
Construction of the Shield Ranch Campsite is expected to continue until May 2022. In the meantime, those curious and groups interested in educational or immersive programs will find more information at shieldranch.com when it opens. The Shield Ranch Foundation always accepts donations.
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