FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KFSM) — The Fayetteville Public Library is hosting an interactive kiosk featuring acclaimed Fayetteville Architect Fay Jones.
“A House of the Ozarks” is an interactive kiosk that is part of an interdisciplinary project led by Greg Herman and David Fredrick, professors at the University of Arkansas, designed to bring the residential designs of Fay Jones to a wider public audience.
The kiosk, which sits in the library lobby, focuses specifically on the architect’s own home in Fayetteville as well as an adjacent unbuilt house of his design.
The kiosk allows the user to explore the Jones house by utilizing game-engine software.
It gives the user the opportunity to move through and around the houses, allowing them to take it apart floor by floor, and providing information hot spots along the way. In addition, the kiosk allows users to explore Jones’ architecture in three dimensions, discover related historical artifacts and critically consider his design principles.
“We have created this project for the purpose of bringing great architecture, and the works of Fay Jones specifically, to a larger lay audience – those who might not be aware of Jones’ work, or who have limited or no access to it,” said Greg Herman, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. “We’re thrilled to partner with Fayetteville Public Library and are excited that so many FPL patrons will have an opportunity to learn more about Mr. Jones.”
Fay Jones was a long-time architecture professor and first dean of what is now the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, named in his honor 10 years ago. Jones is renowned for an architectural approach that combined simple elements — stone, wood and glass — into an expression of great richness while retaining the organic principles and simplicity of expression derived from his mentor and early employer Frank Lloyd Wright.
The kiosk was developed and built by the university’s Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design, which is directed by Fredrick, and the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, where Herman is an associate professor of architecture.
The kiosk will be on display for the next couple of months at the Fayetteville Public Library.
