The Silos

Set in a near future of 2050, The Silos is a civic center serving downtown Des Moines and the greater state of Iowa. Located on the historic Court Avenue, The Silos interface with the Des Moines Farmer’s Market by mirroring the brick facades of the Court Avenue buildings and expanding the market both into the alley on the site and into the building itself.

The building provides a space for a year-long market with vendor spaces, alongside a museum recalling the history of voting and a large event space which can be used to host caucusing, elections, and public speakers.

The Silos creates dramatic lighting to emphasize the building’s extreme verticality, aiming to draw the attention of the individual upward.

The building pushes familiarity through a common material to the midwest: red brick. However, this familiarity is challenged through the monolithic forms yet is broken up via the vertical columns and perforated brick system.

Also seen in section are the mezzanines which carry the individual from one volume to the other, transporting the user through the glass brick lobbies. These lobbies are made of the same module size as the red brick volumes to ensure visual and organizational continuity.

Each volume is crowned by an oculus which serves the purpose to enhance the dramatic lighting in the space. The oculi are oriented in particular directions to capture specific lighting moments. For example, the oculus atop the market volume is oriented southeast in order to capture more morning light, brightening the space as the farmer’s market takes place.

To the left is a view into our market space, where individuals can buy goods and foods, and then sit and eat in the space, experiencing the dramatic lighting from the skylight above. Also sitting in the space is the butter cow from the Iowa State Fair, recalling Iowan iconography in a space designed to provoke Iowan imagery.

To the right is a view of our mezzanines which connect the market and event volumes through our glass brick lobbies, diffusing the light which comes in and affording a time to stop and reflect.

The mapping to the left is an illustration of the Des Moines Farmer’s Market and its power to bring the people of Iowa together. Each red dot represents a vendor at the farmer’s market, while the heart represents the idea that Iowa is at the center of the Heartland, with Des Moines being the central piece of Iowa itself, stitching communities together.

The meeting room view shows our perforated brick system in full effect, casting dotted light into an intimate space.

The exploded isometric view to the left pulls apart our building’s systems, illustrating the structural systems and how it interfaces with the brick shell infill.

Our structure requires both the exposed vertical columns as well as the unexposed horizontal banding which sits within the wall cavity and binds the form together.

To the right is an illustration of our building’s assemblage process. By 2050, when our project is set, it is not difficult to imagine that robots are utilized to construct buildings more commonly. We then expect to utilize brick-building robots to construct our building’s facade and lay brick specifically as designed.

The Silos also features a reconstructed prairie, meant to be a serene moment at the end of the procession, seeking to ease potential anxieties associated with voting.

Also on the site is a water collection system, which collects water runoff to use in building graywater systems and to water the prairie in times of drought.

We found the form of our building by starting with the classic silo shape. However, to accommodate programming and push the familiarity of our building, we expanded and tapered the forms. The volumes spark images of the classic Iowa brick silo, while still becoming unique, monolithic, and powerful forms which house democracy and accommodate the process of voting on the future of policies affecting Des Moines, the state of Iowa, and the nation.