unc-asheville craft campus

location: Asheville, NC
est. completion date: TBA
project team:
Frank Harmon
Erin Sterling

problem statement

The University wants its new Craft Campus to become the leading undergraduate craft studies program in the nation, while re-centering the modern American studio craft movement in Western North Carolina. The 153-acre site, once a Buncombe County landfill, is just four miles from the main campus and will return a forgotten piece of land to sustainable, productive use.

our design response

The UNC-Asheville Craft Campus is designed as a complex of interconnected, environmentally friendly classrooms and studios for education on the region's renowned studio craft traditions. It will embrace all the principles of sustainable design. Most importantly, methane and other alternative fuels generated on the former landfill will serve as "green" energy sources to power kilns, furnaces, forges and other critical infrastructure. Demonstration of these practices will help others to recognize the economic and environmental benefits of such innovation. The campus will be a place that respects the land where it is built and the ecological traditions of the region so that it will appear very much “at home” in its surroundings. As modern green architecture, it will also express state-of-the-art construction and represents the best that crafts have to offer as the University moves forward into the 21st century.

For complete information on the Craft Campus, visit www.unca.edu/craftcampus.