The Tarkeeb Gate House and Garden replaces an aging air-conditioned guard booth at the entrance of a restricted parking area on the College’s campus. The project provides an air-conditioned interior for a security guard, exterior shaded areas, drinking fountain and small garden for the security, janitorial and landscape campus workers. It incorporates an exterior parasol inspired by local mashrabiya (architectural screens) to mitigate solar gain on the interior air-conditioned booth while simultaneously creating a pair of shaded exterior living spaces.

WILLIAM SARNECKY is an architect, furniture designer and educator. Currently residing in Tucson, Arizona, he taught full-time for eleven years at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE before relocating to Tucson. He currently splits time teaching as a Professor of Practice at AUS one semester per year while also teaching at the University of Arizona and maintaining a design practice with areas of research including digital fabrication, furniture design and the “architecture of immediacy.” Prior to his academic career, Sarnecky worked in award winning design practices Brooks Scarpa Architecture and Belzberg Architects. He is a licensed architect and holds an M Arch from the University of New Mexico.

The Design-Build Initiative (DBI) at the College of Architecture, Art and Design provides a unique learning environment for students interested in a comprehensive, hands-on approach to design education. The paradigm of design-build pedagogy, in which students learn by making, extends education beyond conventional academic and disciplinary boundaries to engage the inherent complexities associated with the construction of new environments at full scale in the real world.  The CAAD DBI operates across a wide range of disciplines, including Architecture, Interior Design, Sculpture, Installation Design, and Product Design, with a focus on fabrication, physical production, and material-based learning and scholarship.