MEDICAL SCHOOL ON CAMPUS, UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS - 3rd PRIZE / THEONI XANTHI

 ENG / GR 
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– of Active Landscape, which is not simply the background of the installation, but acquires a vital and active relationship with the building, infiltrate in it and conversely, becoming chargeable event of its design. That is of the dialogue with the natural, anthropogenic and cultural landscapes of the mediterranean area.

– of Educational Environment of the University building, as an Ecosystem, which does not reproduce institutionalization and restrictive schemes, but – beyond its functional performance – is perceived as a place of ​​enhanced creativity, socialization and distribution of knowledge and ideas. This “sustainability” implies a bioclimatic building, designed along with the environment and not in absentia of it.

– of Intermediate Space as mediatory convention that redefines the formal functional program, and rereads it with the “informal” of common spaces and circulation areas. Reorganizes other words the transitional spatial relationships of the indoor and outdoor, work and interface, flow and respite, unifying the aspects of life of the building and providing finally its identity.

The above searches resulted from the data – requested of the competition, such as:

The exceptional natural environment, a touching landscape of Cypriot land. The sloping topography of the site. The desired view from the main Boardwalk – Belvedere. The planned extension of the School. The composite building program and the requirement for fully air conditioned building, of high energy efficiency. The specific nature of educational process, which among others is based largely on the digital image and simulation models. The changing character of the campus to a more urban formation (optical barriers, solid building masses, delineation of Schools private space).

STEPS OF THE DESIGN

– Two gestures compile the composition of the new building. The opening of borders, seeking the synergy with the surrounding environments and the articulation of a “great interior” – the core of the School.

     The main compositional option concerns the removal of built mass from the central area of the field, targeting at creating a vital crack, a “positive gap”, which will constitute the key tool for the functional and the environmental manipulation of the building. This way, was opened up a ravine of natural and social flow, which reveals the natural topography, releases optical views and perceptiveness and allows the permeation of nature into the building.

Acquires the characteristics of a free passage, performing as a branch of the central Pedestrian – Belvedere and interconnection of public spaces (Square of Communal Functions, Biology Faculty Patio), while creating the conditions of transition to the expansion of the School to the south.

– The division of the building volume allows for a clear distinction of the two major functional unities, Undergraduate – Teaching and Postgraduate – Research, on the basis of their contrasting characteristics (mobility and group function for the first – graded accessibility and sanitary safety for the second). The office spaces of Deanery – Academic personnel are placed at the higher levels of the Teaching unity, where the volume is reduced, providing outdoor and semi-outdoor relief and views to the inner and surrounding environment.

The first follows the relief of the ground. Starts with a downgrade tiered square leading to the Student Club area and is evolving into a sheltered courtyard, where flow into the Teaching Rooms. The outdoor passage arranges movements, entrances and pauses at various levels, while a mild upward ramp from the central Boardwalk forms the main entrance in middle level of the building

At its peak, the intermediate space is shaped and protected by the use of a pulsing bioclimatic shelter.

–  Separating the building mass into two elongated volumes, reduces the built footprint and performs beneficially on the bioclimatic behavior of the building (ground transpiration – absorbability, plantings – microclimate, natural lighting – cooling). While the twisting of the wings manages the shadowing, negating the stifling vicinity with neighboring buildings, forms an open input area of the School and simultaneously enhances energy planning (exploitation of orientations and cool NW summer winds). Secondary external skins (from louvers and grids) escalate transparency and protection to more vulnerable elevations. The bioclimatic shelter protects and shadows while establishing an extensive energy “roof” surface, with the integration of photovoltaic panels system in the unseen sides of metal beams of the shelter.

– The above steps finally target a composition, that without lacking a clear structure, a functionally rational building identity and the inherent features of a technologically modern building, constitutes also a more “land – generated” formation, which converses with the benefits of the locus and the way of life, incorporating the parameters of sustainability and social vitality.