INSTITUTE OF FUNCTIONAL BIOLOGY AND GENOMICS BY MATA Y ASOCIADOS

The University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain; founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, it was acknowledged in 1254 by Pope Alexander IV as being one of the four great Universities in the world, along with the universities of Oxford, Paris and Bologna.

It has had many distinguished professors throughout its history, including Luis de León, Beatriz de Galindo, Melchor Cano, Francisco de Vitoria and Miguel de Unamuno and many well known citizens have walked along the University's corridors, like Miguel de Cervantes, Hernando Cortes and Christopher Columbus.

Miguel de Unamuno (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was born in Bilbao, played an important role in the intellectual life of Spain. Unamuno worked in all major genres: the essay, the novel, poetry and theatre, and, as a modernist , contributed greatly to dissolving the boundaries between genres.

"The building is located on a plot at the end of Salamanca University Campus Miguel de Unamuno. Its topography is rugged, with a difference of up to 6 m between the outermost points.

Taking this condition the implantation proposal starts off from a topological approach with two different input levels, allowing access further segregation by types and uses (vehicle access and representative pedestrian access at the lower and upper level, respectively).

The solution adopted led to the construction of a unitary and compact building, with a continuous and semi-transparent mask inspired in genetic coding processes.

After which the plan is organized around eight functional large vertical holes (four indoor and four attached to the facade), thereby obtaining a foamed interior provided with natural lighting.

The compaction of the program also allowed us to liberate most of the plot’s surface, and to project terraced/landscaped plates to allow the coexistence of the outdoor leisure area with controlled parking strips.

The auditorium of amoeboid form, located on the northern head of the building, is configured as a (formal and constructively) differential element that marks the main entrance to the building.

At the other extreme, a large concrete brackets allow shelter the space for expeditions (the other major access area) and hold cryogenic gas tanks." Description of the architects.

 

Location: Salamanca, Spain 
Architects: Mata y Asociados 
Project Team: Myriam Vizcaino Bassi, Javier Encinas Hernández, Eduardo García García, Jaime Pedruelo Sánchez, Stefania Augliera, David Emiliano Fernández Mateos (model) 
Engineers: Euroestudios, A2V ingenieros 
Year: 2010 
Photographs: Juan K. Ayala

MILSTEIN HALL BY OMA

Occupying four distinct buildings at the northern periphery of Cornell's Arts Quad, the College for Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) was a fragmented area, dislocated from the energy of university life.

The new Milstein Hall - a 14,000m2 complex containing much-needed studio, exhibition and crit space, an auditorium and a new Fine Arts Library - is conceived not as a symbolic, isolated addition to the campus but as a connecting structure: a large elevated horizontal plate that links the second levels of Sibley and Rand Halls and cantilevers over University Avenue, reaching towards the Foundry building.

Where a car park once stood between Sibley and Rand, a contiguous, multi-layer system of buildings and plazas unites the disparate elements of the AAP, creating a public space adjacent to the campus's most beautiful feature, just to the north - the Fall Creek Gorge.

The four existing buildings of the AAP - Rand, Sibley, the Foundry and Tjaden Hall - exhibit varying architectural styles but share a single typology: linear, corridor-based buildings that segregate the AAP's disciplines in closed rooms behind a labyrinth of entrances, security codes and dead ends.

Milstein Hall provides a type of space currently absent from the campus: a wide-open expanse that stimulates the interaction of programs, and allows flexibility over time.

Within Milstein Hall's upper plate, which has access to Rand and Sibley, areas are defined not by walls but by subtle manipulations of the section that trigger particular uses: a sunken area for the library, raised areas for crit spaces, and open spaces for studios - all suffused with light from floor-to-ceiling windows and a grid of skylights.

The roof of the upper plate, visible from the third floor of Sibley, Rand and Baker Lab, is an open platform with views of the gorge and the surrounding campus, and is gridded with vegetation that becomes denser in the direction of the gorge.

Milstein Hall is intended as a building with hidden depths: the floor of the upper plate is punctured by the bulging ceiling of the lower plate, opening a route to the lower levels.

This bump continues to slope downwards on both sides, dissecting the lower plate into three areas with varying heights and depths: the lobby (on the Rand side of the building); the basement, with computer labs and meeting areas (in the middle); and a 282-seat auditorium that gradually rises to a double-height space (on the Sibley side).

Like the upper plate, the auditorium has floor-to-ceiling windows, granting views both into the lecture theatre for passersby and out of it for students. Outside the auditorium, a sunken garden, exhibition space and plaza extends to the central, domed portion of Sibley Hall, reinforcing its importance and creating, for the first time, a coherent entry sequence from the north into AAP.

Milstein Hall's sheltering cantilevers, both to the north and the south east, similarly define new areas of public space and encourage new ways to navigate the interlinked AAP.

 

Location: Ithaca, New York, USA

Architects: OMA

Project Area: 47,000 sqf addition to the College of Architecture, Art and Planning – Studios, Crit spaces, Auditorium, Exhibition, Exterior Workspace and Plaza.

Project Year: 2009-2011

Client: Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP)

Photographs: Matthew Carbone

METAFORUM BY ECTOR HOOGSTAD ARCHITECTEN

On the campus of Eindhoven University of Technology, Ector Hoogstad Architecten has transformed the historic W-hal, one of the oldest buildings on the site, into a modern, new main building accommodating the university library, lecture halls, catering facilities, service desks, offices and lots of space to study.

Part of the hall has been converted into a spectacular, indoor events plaza, which will form the centrepiece of the revamped campus design that is currently being executed. The project also encompasses a large newbuild section: new premises for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science built on top of the hall.The W-hal (Mechanical Engineering hall) of the former Eindhoven Technical College formed part of the first generation of buildings on the campus.

The building was constructed in the second half of the 1950s, after a design by architects Van Embden and Choisy. The aim was to create a flexible ‘indoor hectare’ for machinery and experiments. A clever structural design resulted in the characteristic ‘draughtboard roof’, which, together with the transparent facade, provides the interior with plenty of natural light. Its central location made the building the main traffic hub in the university’s characteristic footbridge system.

“We divided the hall into three zones,” explains architect Joost Ector. “The southern section overlaps the new ‘green carpet’, the campus’s new, central green space, and has been opened out to form a covered events area. The northern zone contains office space and the middle zone has been transformed into a library/media library, ‘study landscape’ and service point. Everything is interlinked through open connections: the first floor provides access to all sections and, as traffic level, continues to form the main junction of the TU/e.

We have added new, vertical components to this: from here, you can ascend by means of a spectacular staircase to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science or descend into the library on the ground floor or the new(!) basement. That produces an amazing number of sight lines. These ensure that the building will function as the meeting place on the campus. That was definitely our aim: after all, the main functions of this building are to make knowledge accessible and to encourage people to mingle." 

An unusual staircase with panoramic views over the hall leads to the new accommodation for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science: a newly built section providing more than 16,000m2 of floor space, which will be raised above the draughtboard roof by means of twenty slender, steel columns, “like a massive metal block,” according to Ector. The starting point for the design was a fairly traditional programme of requirements, based on a large number of small office cells. The building, organised around a surprisingly spacious atrium, provides the opportunity for this, but could also be used for very different forms of working in the future.

“For the faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, we designed extremely efficient accommodation, focusing on the need for concentration when working. Yet, here too, we paid a lot of attention to how we could facilitate contact between users. Throughout the building, there are places which invite people to chat, have a coffee or stop briefly for a serious discussion. This is also how the cascade staircase in the atrium arose; on the one hand, based on the desire to offer people an interesting walk through the building as an alternative to the lift, on the other hand to make them as visible as possible to each other.”

In a technical sense, the project is highly complex. The slimline steel superstructure pierces the original hall structure with its twenty slender columns, without the two touching. A new basement level contains installations and part of the library programme, and also serves to partially offset the weight of the new faculty building. The installations in the basement ‘feed’ the new floor of the first storey, which controls the climate in the hall like a ‘table’ laden with equipment, so that the transparent draughtboard roof could remain free from ducts.

Naturally, sustainability was one of the main aspects of the design. Ector: “The reuse of existing buildings is in itself sustainable. There was also a continual emphasis on energy saving, along with comfort. This means that you produce low-energy installations and create a building shell that provides excellent insulation. The restoration of the original non-insulated façade of the W-hal called for a well thought-out and respectful solution.” A new method was devised for this, whereby the steel ‘chair profiles’ were transformed into a highly efficient curtain wall in a sustainable, low-maintenance and reversible way.

The result is indistinguishable from the historic picture. This method could evolve to become the standard solution for this type of restoration project.“This project is very important to Ector Hoogstad Architecten and to me personally. It involves a type of job that we will see increasingly often in the future: the renovation or even restoration of existing buildings, often to make them suitable for new purposes, combined with newbuild. We were able to do that here in a challenging and technically impressive way. In addition, I myself graduated from this university in 1996 and originally come from this area. It was a great honour for me to create this building for my ‘own’ university and I am more than proud of the result.”

 

 

Location: Eindhoven, Holland

Architects: Ector Hoogstad Architecten

Design Team: Joost Ector, Max Pape, Chris Arts, Ralph Sijstermans, Ridwan Tehupelasury, Kees Bongers, Hetty Mommersteeg, Arja Hoogstad, Gijs Weijnen, Victor Braat, Wesley de Bruijn, Ralph Noordhoek, Sabine Alders and Damion Schwarzkachel

Area: 26,912 sqm

Year: 2012

Photographs: Norbert van Onna, Bart van Overbeeeke, Petra Appelhof

E.J. OURSO COLLEGE OF BUSINESS BY IKON.5 ARCHITECTS

The E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University is a glass and steel academical village’ for business education.

The courtyard site plan and building forms are contextual— recalling the sloped roof pavilions and arcaded courtyards of the adjacent historic campus.

To illustrate a forward looking aesthetic that embodies the mission of the school, which is to generate business innovation in Louisiana and the Gulf region, these traditional architectural forms are constructed of contemporary materials and details.

The pavilions are clad in ceramic coated translucent mirror glass and the rotunda is clad in a bronze solar screen resulting in a composition of forms that are ephemeral apparitions of the original campus.

This composition reflects the strong heritage of the campus while looking to the promises of the future.

The design team researched glass technologies and developed a cream colored ceramic fritted insulating glass unit with mirror glass back panel which creates a moiré pattern over the surface of the pavilions resulting in a three dimensional appearance that is similar in color and modeling to its stucco-clad neighbors.

The south and west sides of the rotunda are surrounded by a custom bronze screen that utilizes an arch motif which recalls the university’s treasured campus arcades.

The screen is designed to shield the glass rotunda from harsh solar gain.At the ground level, the pavilions, which house the classrooms are interconnected by an arcade and surround the landscaped courtyard.

Internally, a multi-story business commons, located in the rotunda, opens up visually and physically to the courtyard and is the iconic centerpiece for the business school campus.

Location: Baton Rouge, USA

Architect: Ikon.5Architects

Area: 167.000 sf

Year: 2012

Client: Louisiana State University