Manzanita Village & Carrillo Commons

The architecture of this 800 bed undergraduate student housing complex is shaped to enhance community at multiple scales. Social magnets and amenities, such as lounges, studies, kitchens, and laundries, are collected into hubs of activity. Extending out from these social cores are thoughtfully scaled articulated hallways that group double and single rooms with bathrooms that each serve four students. Active pedestrian paths intersect at a central plaza where housing and academic uses all have a strong presence and identity. An addition and remodel to the existing dining commons enhances the dining experience while also providing a place for academic and social gatherings.

The buildings are designed as simple, clear volumes whose details and color occur in socially and environmentally meaningful ways. Color was orchestrated to not only define special moments on the buildings, but also to anchor each quad to its place on the site. The white of the resident houses serves to unify the village, while the more intensely colored commons buildings symbolically announce the vibrant activity within. Sun-shading on the southern and western elevations reduce heat gain as the configuration of the buildings maximizes natural ventilation. Landscaping was chosen to responsibly manage water-use and erosion, and utilizes bio-swales and permeable surfaces to regulate surface run-off.

Sustainable design efforts preceded those found within the LEED system and included careful planning to reduce mechanical vertical transportation (elevators), reduce indoor conditioned corridors, foster natural ventilation and daylighting, careful choice of materials using recycled and recyclable materials and FSC certified woods, energy efficient lighting and heating systems,

Most of all created a series of bioswales that gather storm drainage filtering and percolating this water back into the water table rather than allowing it to pollute the adjacent ocean and campus lagoon water bodies – provide fingers of beautiful native planting into and through the village tieing the community to the natural qualities of the site – included permeable paving that provides both an appropriate character and environmental response.