Austin Seed Bank

Work Creative Fields Architecture, Unbuilt
Project Type Design Studio
Publication -
Project Date Fall 2010

When the financial market crashed, banks on Wall Street were closing, a new type of bank emerged, seed banks. Social and economic shifts make people become more aware of the diminishing of natural resources. As biodiversity decreases at alarming rates, preservations to save and protect what remains become increasing important. More importantly, this multi-faceted social and cultural issue takes more than one solutions to address. The seed bank needs to be more than a storage, or a museum with displays that people only visit occasionally. The seed bank needs to be a new cultural center that nurture and promote a new kind of awareness and life style.

The project started without a site. As the point of departure, I turned to packaging design as my initial research. Seeds will be circulated to and from the Seed Bank everyday, because seeds can’t just be stored eternally, they needs to be re-germinated every few years to keep the genes alive. So how would the seeds be transported? And how would this seed bank’s package identify itself, furthermore, identify the city it is in, and the citizens it represent?

Packaging design research study models and ketch design models.

Context Plan and Site Plan

As my packaging design research develop in parallel with the site selection, the final choice of project site informed and directed my decision. The wedge shape packaging (structurally sturdy and assist the procedure of replanting as it entire package with seeds could be pushed into the ground) and slope-site led me to the development of the terracing ramps. The entire “roof” of the seed bank is habitable. And seed storage, cleaning and sorting laboratory, library, auditorium, and public “great room” are all located semi-underground. The solidity and “grounded-ness” of the seed bank draw on some of the traditional monumentalities of financial institutions. The idea of the “buried treasure,” the “safe-deposit box,” and the “secured vault” are all messaged embedded in this buried building. Under the terrace-roofs are glass curtain walls, filled with packages of seeds. The pattern changes depending on season, as seeds come and leave the bank, and whatever patterns they create, they serve as a screen that filters life and culture between the seed bank and its community.