School of Art, Architecture and Design, Freie Universität, Berlín
Projects 8
Delivered: 2008 Spring
Tutors: Ángela Gª de Paredes + Iñaki Carnicero
TU: López-Peláez
The Free
University is the largest of Berlin
three universities. The mat-like campus was designed by Candilis, Josic, Woods
and Schiedhelm. The aim of the project was to fill the void between the most
important building, Humanities Institute, and the rest of the departments. The
new school provides with the structure to link and nails the urban context. The
building sits flushed with Fabeck
St. and creates a recurrence pattern for building
and natural components, based on the Sonsbeek Pavilion in Arnhem by Aldo van Eyck.
The new
school of art, architecture and design includes facilities for teaching, research,
working, model-making and crafts, comprising classrooms, seminar rooms and
workshops. Also, there are administrative offices, shop, cafeteria, library and
an auditorium. The space between Josic, Candillis, Woods and Schiedhelm
building and school forms an outer atrium and prompts the approach by two ends
of building. The inner circulation space works as a comb, with only one storey,
with two access points as ends. The circulation servant space is the foot of
the perpendicular served spaces.
The main
materials are concrete, glass and lawn. The highly legible structure is made of
3 meters-multiple span parallel concrete walls pierced by the circulation
corridor. By the high length of these walls, courtyards appear among them with
a semi-circular wall marking the access. The Fabeck St. façade is made of glass, or
polycarbonate panels in places where more privacy is necessary, covered by a
spread metallic mesh. The opposite elevation is glazed. The inner elevations in
the courtyards are glazed too and the floors are made of lawn and Ipe wood
paving.
The light
in a teaching building has to be one of the most important deals. In this project,
all the light in work spaces is drawn into by vertical glazed spans located in
different height depending on the space below. The placement of these elements is
based on northern or southern orientation. The light is sifted by diffusive
sheets of wood on the wall-perpendicular concrete joists.
