STUDIO in the woods

Experience

A Studio in the Woods is an artist retreat center and a program of Tulane University where the highest priority is to create a place of investigation and discovery.

The Steward’s Cottage at A Studio in the Woods serves as a model for future development on the Gulf Coast. Designed to provide residence for an onsite caretaker within the 8-acre bottomland hardwood forest, the house will be a demonstration of sustainable principles put into practice. It slips quietly into the woods in a previously disturbed area of the site and helps to define a future entry court to the studio enclave. The Steward’s Cottage was designed to become a “net zero energy use” structure with the addition of future solar energy generation. Sympathetic to the existing structures at the campus, we created multiple opportunities for art to engage the structure.

The Writer’s Cabin project was supported by Moira and Stephen Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers and many other bestselling books on American history. The small cabin and studio add another dimension to the site by inviting writers to work in a close relationship with nature. As a program of Tulane, this includes scholars, faculty, and graduating senior retreats, as well as Xavier University faculty writing retreats. The site acts as a lens to examine environmental challenges, issues, and questions, and the architecture fits lightly into the landscape.