Cancer Alley Studio

I began my design process of an artist’s studio by researching cancer alley - the chain of petroleum factories along the Mississippi river in Louisiana. Using a landscape photo by Richard Misrach of a scene from Cancer Alley, a sugar cane field with a petroleum factory in the background, I recreated the scene he painted and began developing my site analysis. Before I began designing the intricacies of the studio, I first had to understand the relation the studio would have with its surrounding environment. I studied the ins and outs of petroleum factories and designed one myself in addition to the studio. I positioned the studio where the picture was taken in effort to preserve the original view.

I created two views within the studio. The first is placed directly in the sight of the factory. This view was made possible in the entrance to the studio, which connects to an outdoor porch. I used a pitched roof to further entrench the directionality towards the factory into the space. As seen in the plan below, the perimeter around the studio was cut from the sugar cane, and the studio was offset five feet. This left space in the thoroughfare to view the factory. The second view is in the studio space. Since it’s placed further into the sugar cane than the axis line that goes through the entry, the view loses focus of the factory and prioritizes the beautiful sugar cane surrounding it. I created a division of hardscape and landscape. Hardscape is shown in the entrance, and landscape is shown in the studio. With the intention of making a studio space to create, I found the best way to encourage naturality would be to immerse the studio completely in the sugar cane field.

In addition to the studio space, it also has a bathroom and a gallery space to show off the artist’s work. Each section of the building uses simple geometry in relation to boxy organization of the factory across the field. I designed the studio with the intention of sticking out to emphasize the division of hardscape and landscape.