New building for the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture 11/2008
competition entry in collaboration with Ernst Kabel, David Smidt van Gelder, Bart-Jan Polman
The building concept is based on the idea that contact between students is as important as the didactic part of their education. Being at university one learns as much from the discussions with his/her fellow students as from the professors. The project creates a stimulating environment, which encourages users to be active, critical and initiative within an inspiring learning context. Interaction is given a central role in the project.
The whole available site is covered with a factory-like box, a hall. Inside it are enclosed hills, made of stepping up platforms. On top of the hills are the studio, exhibition and discussion spaces, under the hills are situated the archives, parking and storage. Above the hills, suspended from the ceiling are all didactic facilities: lecture halls and labs. The roof is a 7x7 metre grid supported by 5 cores. The cores provide the vertical connection to the student city above the box.
On top of the box, literally, student life has been taken into account in a broader sense than just attending classes. Coming either from the interior of the box via the cores or from Delft via the ramps, one enters a student campus. Ateliers, teachers' offices, administration, shops and bars, and even dwellings make up the city that grows on top of the box. The building is meant to be a 24-hour experience for the students and for the town of Delft.
conceptual sketch
box
hills
factory hall
inverted city
cores
city
section
birdeye view
view of the exterior
view of the interior
plan ground floor (hills)
plan level 1 (city)