Kodet Architectural Group worked with Minnesota State Academies, in Faribault, MN, to design Wilkins Hall, a new student dormitory building for the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. The dormitory houses 60 students, ages 6-18, who are deaf or hearing impaired. Many students also have low vision, which required developing thoughtful design strategies for the interior and exterior. Through collaboration and engagement, the Kodet team designed a welcoming space for students to live, learn, and interact.
The building has a variety of room sizes and types based on the unique needs and circumstances of the users, and all spaces are fully accessible. The facility also includes common spaces such as an activity room with food-service, and specialty rooms including education + life skills classrooms. These specialty spaces give students a collaborative and flexible space to learn how to live independently through cooking, laundry, and financial management classes. The exterior utilized locally sourced stone and was designed to fit the context and character of the surrounding campus.
Our firm has a long history which emphasizes developing thoughtful design solutions that combine aesthetics and accessibility to accommodate unique programmatic needs. Designing spaces for low-hearing and low-vision users were built upon the ADA’s guidelines. This not only includes acoustic considerations: ambient, mechanical, and material noise, but also lighting. By designing the spaces to include diffused natural light, minimizing corners and niches and using simple texture and color variations, we were able to improve visibility between spaces. These details were combined with legibility of the floor plan to create a highly accessible dormitory that met programmatic needs.
The design team collaborated early on to clearly identify strategies that would guide team members through design and construction to achieve Minnesota B3 standards. Specific attention was focused on maintaining high indoor environmental quality through creative and intentional control of daylighting, vibrations, thermal comfort, and acoustics for a user demographic sensitive to light, sound, and vibrations.
Our team worked closely with the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf to assure their project came to life while creating a warm atmosphere for students to live, learn, and interact. By focusing on the details to support the welcoming aesthetic we discovered innovative design solutions that fit their program and met their current and future needs.
