Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio Corporate Projects

KIA TRAINING FACILITY

The design intends to bridge cultural differences by creating a unique but familiar building form utilizing building principals shared by Korea and the American South. Traditional Korean architecture of house and temple and southern vernacular architecture of the dogtrot, shed and plantation house are derived as specific responses to landscape, climate, function, local craft and symbol; done well, they combine to create simple, purposeful and beautiful buildings.

The Training Facility site is a 30-acre cotton farm adjacent to the flood waters of the Chattahoochee River and the 1600-acre factory site. Understanding that Kia’s factory would raze the balance of the beautiful property, we planned the building to minimize the impact on the land and preserve intact a major slice of the existing landscape.

The simple rectangular building is placed on the sloping site to form three unequal and distinct exterior zones: on the north, the building is pushed close to the property line and creates the service zone; on the east, the second floor slides into the hillside to create a formal garden between the meeting room and a century-old pecan grove; the south façade faces the gentle rolls of the farm land and frames a natural landscape bowl overlooking the future site of the factory.

The training facility has three major spaces: factory simulation area, classrooms and public meeting space. These spaces are organized by two datum lines: the north-south datum establishes the main entry and divides public functions from private functions. The east-west datum is defined by the circulation porch that knits together major spaces while providing deep shade to the south façade. This glazed wall opens the building to the land and reveals the building’s internal processes of training.

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Corporate Projects:
Protective Life Corporation Headquarters
First Commercial Bank Headquarters Building
Alabama Operations for AT&T
Riverfront Development Office Building
KIA Training Facility
Honda Training Facility
Red Mountain Bank
Bank of Tuscaloosa
Jemison Flats
Golden Construction