Architecture firm DAA has created an education centre for a suburban site in the American Midwest, which features standing-seam metal cladding and a colourful interior.

Occupying on a corner lot, the building sits near a strip mall and a residential neighbourhood in Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska. The client, Sandler Training, provides professional development services, with a focus on sales and customer service.

Encompassing 5,000 square feet (465 square metres), the facility contains training rooms, offices and a kitchen. One of the greatest challenges for the architect was creating a distinctive building on a budget of under $900,000 (£693,040).
"Designed and built on a shoestring budget, the project shifts the perception of what a Midwestern strip mall could look like," said local firm DAA, or DeOld Andersen Architecture, in a project description.
A starting point was the siting of the facility. The standard approach in the suburban area is to front a building with a parking lot. The team decided to switch things up, placing the parking and main entrance in the rear, and moving the building toward the street-facing edges of the property.

"DAA inverted the typical parking lot-to-building relationship by pushing the building to the setback and creating an internalised entrance sequence from the parking lot," the team said. "This more internalised relationship creates a better street presence, as well as respects the more private nature...