Austrian architects Lorian Fend, Maria Helinurm, and Mirko Daneluzzo unveiled their project for a boarding school in England. The building is composed of four main units (or lobes) connected into one large mass by peripheral annexations. The annexes are used to define the boundaries of the outdoor rooms, to blur the perimeter of the building and provide vertical circulation. The extensions filter, frame, contain services and access points. The overall building mass uses a combination of skylights and surface fissures to capture light and give depth to the complex.

The program avoids dead zones, as each function is distributed in every unit in a modified ‘mixed use’ strategy. The major common spaces, the library, the gymnasium, the dining hall and the lecture halls, characterize each unit/lobe and are located on the ground floor. The ground floor extends vertically through the volume, to bring light into the space, and to visually and physically connect the levels, emphasizing the vertical connections. The second level determinates the horizontal connections between these units, and hosts the educational and administrative parts. The two top floors are reserved for the dormitories which have direct connection to the ground through the annexations.

The character of the transformation process is to define a centralized organization in different scales which we translated in common central spaces/ smaller service-private rooms. The building is a link that interacts with the forest, the lake and the open field. The site has three main access points; the main entrance is framed by the Cricket field and the bordering lake edge, which rising up to the main plaza, the forecourt to main gate of campus. The second access is located between the building mass complex and the sport fields and delicately redefines the horizon. Finally the third access is reserved for the service. When approaching the campus by car, the first impression of the building is foregrounded by the lake, reinforcing and defining itself as a stable institution. Once you are on the site, the building is perceived softer as it is embedded in the landscape and merges with the forest.

The project deals with the variation of density of an abstract substance that describes the mass: the aim is to break down and spread a homogeneous mass composed of particles in order to create various spatial conditions. A geometrical transformation was used as a tool to articulate the inversion of density. There is a clear intention to create a compact but penetrable mass, generating a multitude of effects. The building serves as both a border and a link between the adjacent housing development and the surrounding context.

via suckerPUNCH

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