Tarkeeb Gate House and Garden: A Blend of Functionality and Aesthetic Appeal

William Sarnecky and Michael Hughes Redefine Security Booth Design

The Tarkeeb Gate House and Garden is a unique security booth design that seamlessly integrates practicality with aesthetic appeal. The design brief required a replacement for an aging air-conditioned guard booth at the entrance of a restricted parking area on a college campus. The result is a structure that provides an air-conditioned interior for a security guard, exterior shaded areas, a drinking fountain, and a small garden for the security, janitorial, and landscape campus workers.

The inspiration for the design comes from the visual permeability of the bar grate mashrabiya, an architectural screen associated with privacy and shadows. The term mashrabiya derives from mashrab, meaning a place to drink water. This project relinks the two manifestations of the word, the shade-giving screen, and the earlier poetic reference to a shared drinking space.

The design is unique in its use of standard mass-produced bar grate exterior with a series of custom deviations that address specific pragmatic and programmatic requirements such as signage, seating, and increased visual access for the security guard. These localized modifications leverage CNC plasma cutting technology combined with traditional, analog craftsmanship in steel assembly to readily pair mass production with localized customization.

The project was initiated in the autumn of 2016, with construction beginning in spring 2017 and completion in autumn 2018. The design team faced several creative, technical, and research challenges. The project enhances existing campus infrastructure, providing pragmatic functions, promoting community equality, and exhibiting a social and environmental conscience. It seeks to elevate basic human comforts while simultaneously imparting exuberant delight.

The Tarkeeb Gate House and Garden is more than just a security booth. It is a space of respite for landscape workers, security guards, and other workers who labor outside in the heat. It eschews the fixation on tall buildings and iconic islands to focus on the microenvironments inhabited by individual workers and improving working conditions through the provision of reprieve, refreshment, and spatial delight.

The design's unique properties and innovative realization technology earned it the Silver A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2019. This award is given to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs, admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcase a remarkable level of excellence and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.