Ryan Laurain
rlaurain@ltu.edu Website LinkedInRyan Laurain, a senior at LTU, is graduating with his Bachelor’s in Architecture and entering the Master’s Program at LTU this spring. He strives to design with sustainable building solutions and thoughtful programming to provide users with a unique experience. Creating architecture that blends nature into the building and embedding the architecture into nature and site further drives his creative studies and work.
TITLE 
The Ripple
MajorArchitecture [BS]
DescriptionThe Ripple, a Health and Sports Complex is a community center located on the Southwest tip of Ashmun Bay in Sault Ste. Marie, MI to create an anchor for future development of the Ashmun Bay. The Ripple utilizes sustainable design through the Living Building Challenge (LBC) imperatives, site activation, and a comprehensive approach to the design of program, energy needs, HVAC, and aesthetics. Materiality and energy consumption is approached through locally sourced mass timber construction, a PV and solar thermal panel array, and the LBC needs of green space and nature activation.
The Ripple Complex consists of a series of ripples that flow the comprehensiveness and project goals together. First, the building’s form takes on a branch that splits into two for the primary activity spaces, with wave-like rippled sawtooth roofs for those spaces. Next, the facade includes multiple connecting ripples, the rippling effect of the kinetic window forms that flow through the programs, as well as the rippling of the facade materiality, the vertical wood slats and greenery on other slats to bring greenery onto the building’s facades. Courtyards and exterior activity spaces ripple into the building’s form through a series of open-air structural bays that allow for nature to connect with the building and ease the transition from the nature-like site to the interior spaces. Lastly, a rippling NLT ceiling forms around the HVAC systems to encapsulate the ventilation systems, giving an eased visual aesthetic while creating a cohesive system between the structure, HVAC, and ceiling system.
The Ripple Complex uses all these techniques to provide visitors with a unique experience for a sports hall, allowing for a connection with nature and sustainability within all aspects of the project.