We identified three critical problems with the existing campus and found three simple solutions:
Ash Sakula ArchitectsCurrently, Avenue Campus is dominated by cars: A campus in a car park.
All the parking is at the back of the site, with the only entrances at the front. So the entire campus is threaded through with narrow vehicle ways, and the buildings sit in a sea of stationary cars. No one seems to ride a bike.
We proposed to free the campus of cars, partly by encouraging more sustainable travel arrangements but mainly by putting the cars underground.- Ash Sakula Architects
The campus has no focus: inhibiting social and professional interaction. There are multiple points of arrival, and many users have little sense of the other things that go in the campus. Although users value facilities like spacious well-equipped studios, the campus layout isolates them.
To counter this, we proposed a single main point of arrival in the form of a welcoming hub at the centre of the campus, transforming the life of the campus. - Ash Sakula Architects
Students find Avenue Campus dreary: a nowhere place. Many would prefer to be at the other university campus. There are currently only two buildings of any architectural quality, Maidwell and Kingsley Park. Other buildings betray low design aspirations, which impact negatively on student, business and community perceptions.
Our hub proposal creates a building that will get itself noticed, and that will make users feel good about being there.
We have formed a new hub at the nodal point of the campus by demolishing the front range of Maidwell and creating a landmark structure within its courtyard with a large spiral car park underneath. This way, every campus user arrives at the same point, whether coming by car, by cycle, on bus or on foot; everyone sees everyone. The new concourse gives direct access to all the central facilities: a learning resource centre, theatre, cinema, café/restaurant and bar. It transforms the labyrinth of the existing Maidwell building to provide intuitive way finding to all levels. The south-facing stepped roof of the concourse provides a sunny set of terraces on which to meet friends or wait for the bus. It also has the possibility of becoming a performance space in its own right, both impromptu and staged.
Moving the car parks underground, and replacing them with a series of carefully landscaped courtyards and break out spaces creates a new atmosphere. One within which pedestrians dominate. The masterplan provides an additional 38,500 sq m of floor space, doubling the size of the existing campus while providing varied and contemporary landscape, with wild flowers, formal gardens, prairie planting, allotments, Chinese gardens, a teardrop hill and a sunset terrace; creating a campus with a central buzz and a more studious periphery.
The new Maidwell Hub has been designed around sustainable principles.
The building presents a mostly solid roof of high thermal mass to the south, avoiding south-facing glazing and making best use of low temperature under-floor heating and displacement ventilation arrangements with heat recovery and night time cooling. Ground source heat pumps will form the primary source of heating and cooling for the campus expansion. The existing building would be refurbished with greatly increased levels of insulation and high performance windows and roof lights.
There will be digital displays of energy usage in public areas, roof-mounted solar thermal panels will pre-heat hot water, and rainwater will be harvested for reuse in WCs and for landscape irrigation. Water saving appliances and taps will be used. Daylight-linked and occupancy-linked lighting controls will save money and greatly reduce energy and carbon. Cycling will encouraged over private car use as we propose a rentable cycle scheme and car club.
The teardrop-shaped hill will be surmounted by a 40m high Quiet Revolution qr12 helical wind turbine which will not only be a highly visible symbol of the University’s commitment to renewable technologies but can also generate around 45,000kWh.
Team: Cany Ash, Robert Sakula, Felix Minkus, Kossy Nnachetta, Barbara Toscani, Stephano Servi
