Cavern

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Project type: Public Gallery & Municipal Service Center

Date: Spring 2026

Area: 43,400 sq ft / Location: 2801 Adeline St, Berkeley, CA 94703

Course: ARCH 100B / Studio: Kei Takanami

Cavern is an 43,400 square foot two-story public gallery and municipal service center located across from a bustling super market and surrounding residences. The program includes public galleries, a cafe, lobby, three municipal services, offices, and classrooms. Cavern’s core design utilizes a pair of three interconnected, folded interior voids to establish a programmatic hierarchy between the polarizing gallery and municipal elements. These folded voids expand beyond the structure via fenestration and envelope extrusions.

Cavern's interior masses, cantilevered structure, and envelope design are used to accompany the project's diverse program.

Cavern uses its interconnected voids as rooms to house attractive programmatic elements onto the foreground. More private programs are located on the peripheral enfilades of the project's square plan.

Cavern's section demonstrates four uses of the interconnected voids' folds. On the first floor, the folds allow for the large gallery, lobby, and cafe to open up. On the second floor, the folds allow for greater vertical clearance on the public side of the municipal counters. Furthermore, these folds allow for the interconnected rooms have a formal separation without the use of traditional entryways. Finally, the folds also allow for leading lines to transition and cover peripheral rooms.

Skylight voids and extrusions that puncture through all floors of Cavern. Their triangular form is based off of the triangular planes from the ceilings of the folded voids. The slanted nature of the extrusions follow the same slopes of the folds underneath. One of these extrusions contains a stairway into an multi-use rooftop.

Cavern features three types of fenestration: large corner windows that hugs the exterior face of the interconnected voids, long clerestory windows for first floor studio spaces, and punchout windows for peripheral municipal offices.

The exterior site of Cavern aims to duplicate the theme of polarization found in the project's program through the split between a open grass field and a concrete courtyard. On the North-East edge is a large triangular plinth that acts as an extension of the project's gallery. The project's entrances are located on the South direction because it carries the highest amount of present-day circulation due to the Berkeley Bowl super market across.