Project:
Aqua Caliente Community Center
Owner:
The Band of Cahuilla Indians
Project Description:
The Band of Cahuilla Indians requested a community center building using a non-rectilinear space planning and architectural language. The design team studied ancient Cahuilla Art and developed a sinuous layout that liberated the plan from Eurocentric approaches to building and site design. Based on an elliptical grid, the 20,000 sq. ft. complex collects along a circulation spine which serves as an access point and connector to the different services required by the users: health center, computer learning, meeting space and child care, ending at the core area: the community room which serves as both celebratory space as well as the central meeting room for tribal affairs, held in a traditional cultural manner.
