Tippet Rise Art Center

Xylem

Francis Kéré
12. July 2019
Francis Kéré-designed Xylem at Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, 2019. Image courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan. (Photo: Iwan Baan)
Xylem is located close to the art center’s central campus near the bank of Grove Creek, amid aspen and cottonwood trees. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
Named to evoke the vital internal layers of a tree’s living structure, Xylem is a place where visitors may gather to converse, contemplate the views of the aspen and cottonwood trees near the bank of Grove Creek, or sit and meditate in solitude. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
Xylem was constructed of locally and sustainably-sourced ponderosa and lodgepole pine. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
Kéré drew inspiration for his design from the traditional togunas of the Dogon culture of Mali: sacred shelters with wooden pillars and layered roofs of wood and millet straw, which provide protection from the sun as well as ventilation within the space beneath. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
Xylem features a canopy of vertical logs above the seating areas, to create both shelter and a play of light and shadow. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
The seating elements’ organic shapes are inspired in part by abstract paintings that artist and Tippet Rise co-founder Cathy Halstead created based on forms of microscopic life, in addition to the sinuous topography of the surrounding hills. (Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Tippet Rise/Iwan Baan)
Project: Xylem, 2019
Location: Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, Montana, USA
Architect: Francis Kéré, Kéré Architecture, Berlin, Germany
  • Design Team: Vincenzo Salierno, Nina Tescari, Kéré Architecture, Berlin, Germany
  • Contributors: Kinan Deeb, Andrea Zaia, Lina Wittfoht, N’Faly Ismaël Camara, Kéré Architecture, Berlin, Germany
Project Management: Pete Hinmon, Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, Montana
Architect of Record: Laura Viklund, Gunnstock Timber Frames, Powell, Wyoming
Landscape Architecture: Oehme, Van Sweden: Washington, D.C 
Structural Engineer: AECOM, London, United Kingdom
Structural Engineer of Record: DCI Engineers, Bozeman, Montana 
Civil Engineer: DOWL Engineering, Billings, Montana
General Contractor: On Site Management, Bozeman, Montana
Wood Fabricator: Chris Gunn, Gunnstock Timber Frames, Powell, Wyoming 
Steel Fabrication: TrueNorth Steel, Billings, Montana
Steel Erection: Western States Steel Erection, Billings, Montana
Concrete: Davis and Sons Construction, Absarokee Montana

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