With EYRC Architects
The Cocopah Museum Expansion is a project for the Cocopah Nation of the Yuma area. The proposed expansion to the reservation’s current cultural complex adds a new 1,200 SF gallery, adjacent to an existing museum.
Existing as a standalone structure, the architecture takes visitors through a weaving journey through old and new exhibitions, abbreviated by outdoor spaces and intimate gardens. Formally, the architecture is simple using an orthogonal plan and implementing a flat roof overhang in reference to historic dwellings of the Cocopah. A woven willow lattice suspended from the ceiling recalls vegetation native to the Colorado river and construction methods used in traditional Cocopah dwellings. Rammed earth is also integrated to express local soils in a stunning stratification which takes on an earthy red hue with an iron-oxide admixture, a natural pigment used in indigenous culture for centuries.
The Cocopah Museum adds additional program to a living and proud culture, leaning and observing from traditional indigenous structures and construction techniques to propose a modern design that grounded in a rich culture that continues to cherished by Cocopah people today.