It is not enough that the educational facilities of the future are rational and efficient buildings. They must also be enriching physical surroundings for the students and staff, where everyday life will unfold in inspiring ways. Buildings should prepare and communicate the teaching situation and create the right environment for optimal learning.
The Physics Research Center (PRC) is the new home for theoretical and experimental physics at the University of Chicago. It is an adaptive reuse of an existing midcentury modern research building – including a gut renovation of the majority of the interior space, a completely new enclosure, and two new occupied floor levels over the existing structure. The original building, called the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research (LASR), was designed by SOM and completed in 1964. An embodiment of the architectural spirit of its time, the simple, rational building is characterized by an expressed structure and wide floor plates, thereby presenting challenges for renovation due to its intricate reinforced concrete joists and girders, shallow floor-to-floor heights, and uninsulated enclosure.
Situated at the perimeter of the expanse of Hacettepe University’s Beytepe Campus in Ankara, Museum, and Center for Biodiversity building house scientific research facilities and exhibition spaces devoted to scientific materials on the topic of biodiversity. Beytepe Campus is on the main development axis in Ankara, the westward highway to Eskişehir, which creates severe pressure of urbanization and land fragmentation.
Merging the previously separate departments into a new Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering called for a redesign to create modern ways of working. The central idea has been to create more open spaces for people to meet and make the activity within the facility visible. The architects have focused on the interior; changing the building’s static and closed form has created greater mobility and more modern ways of working.
This work culminates the different stages of the Alcorta headquarters of the Torcuato Di Tella University developed since 2009 by RDR arquitectos. It consists of two new levels that finish the building, built with a metal structure and glazed enclosures that rest on the pre-existing roof of the previously remodeled building, fully operational. The fourth floor houses a restaurant, offices and classrooms, and the fifth floor is a large 2,000 m2 garden roof covering the entire length of the plant. This new green space allows the University to expand its recreational areas and enjoy the open views towards the river and the city, attracting students to a new meeting place.
The high-tech, STEM-focused facility at the Missouri Innovation Campus (MIC) serves 600 Lee’s Summit R-7 School District students and 1,200 University of Central Missouri students. MIC’s 2 + 2 program, which is a collaboration between both industry and academic partners, focuses on learner outcomes in an immersive and rich, real-life workplace experience. High school graduates can simultaneously earn an associate’s degree, followed by a bachelor’s degree two years later. Students from 16 to 30 are working in a classroom and workplace towards the same degree. These benefits translate into earlier graduation, less college debt, and higher likelihood of job placement. Bachelor degree programs include, Systems Engineering Technology, Design and Drafting Technology, Computer Science, and Cybersecurity.
The new Academic Building on Western University’s main campus will be the home for the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing (JLFSN) and Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS). Located on a significant site at the entrance to an area of the campus that is under major redevelopment, the Academic Building responds to the importance of a strong international presence in learning and research-intensive universities. In pursuit of this, JLFSN and FIMS will make available a range of environments; flexible instructional spaces, action learning labs, clinical training and computer laboratories, media studies studios, library science facilities, faculty/staff offices, research spaces, and student spaces.
Through UCL’s masterplan, Levitt Bernstein identified an opportunity to create a new courtyard terrace above an existing service yard. As well as providing a high-quality outdoor space for staff and students, this opens up a new east-west route to improve accessibility across campus. The existing service yard had become unsightly but was overlooked by a number of important university buildings. The challenge was to connect these disparate elements with one cohesive design – all the more problematic considering the Wilkins Building is Grade I listed.
Ydalir Hotel, in the proximity of the University of Stavanger, is the first campus hotel in Norway. Thoughtful solutions characterize the building with durable materials; brick, concrete, copper and oak. In addition to high building qualities, Ydalir also represents significant added value to the university and the innovation and business environment in the Stavanger Innovation Park. The hotel consists of 59 rooms, several of which with kitchen facilities adapted for long term stays. At the ground floor, several rooms are intended for the university, with space for events such as public defense of a PhD thesis.
Extending Arquitectonica’s longtime association with the University of Miami School of Architecture (Bernardo Fort-Brescia, Laurinda Spear and their son Raymond Fort have all served on the school’s faculty), the Thomas P. Murphy Design Studio Building cements the firm’s commitment to the University and its hometown through the design of a one-of-a-kind laboratory and collaborative space for the next generation of architects. The new 20,000-square-foot LEED-certified studio building provides a space that supports and furthers the school’s educational pedagogy. The exposed structure of glass and concrete serves as a teaching tool by illustrating some of the basic tenets of modern architecture, construction and sustainability. `
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