The Woonasquatucket River Environmental Discovery Center (WREDC) is a place where students of the environment can enjoy a natural space within their own community. It provides a much needed connection to a site which, for far too long has been off limits to the community. As a potential learning environment for young students, the WREDC becomes a platform for a sustainable lifestyle. In this place we learn about the past, connect it to the present, and allow for change in the future.
This thesis is about making these connections of past and future through the current constructs of the Social, Historical, Cultural, and Environmental constructs of a specific place. This architecture is about linking place with building, and understanding that context is of the utmost importance when it comes to sustainability. If we as architects provide smart, culturally rich architecture, communities will take care of it, and allow it to live on