The new Robotics Facility for Lee’s Summit School District is a flexible and adaptable maker-lab designed to bring students, industry partners, and community volunteers together to provide real-world experiences. Home to both an internationally recognized robotics program and a concept-to-market wood construction program, students learn skills from mechanical engineering to business and marketing.   

Inspired by the programs within – fundamentally tectonic in nature – the concept for the new facility intentionally expresses and celebrates building components often hidden or ignored. Structure, wall framing, and even fasteners were ‘designed’ to elevate their legibility to the everyday observer and express the related tectonic nature of architecture.   

Being a bit playful in this process, exaggerated cantilevers evoke wonder while also providing shelter for the outdoor work areas below. Similarly, a perforated aluminum scrim wraps the structure, exposing a crimson substrate and diagonal girts beyond, revealing the wall construction while also passively mitigating direct sunlight to labs.