The Undergraduate and Postgraduate Centre
Y e a r 3
S t u d i o P r o j e c t
The project consists of two designs- Undergraduate Centre and Postgraduate residences with adjacent educational facilities and a conference centre. These are developed on two seperate sites, however act together ro improve the overall masterplan of Old Aberdeen. They can also be understood as two stages of development plan for the Univerity's campus.
The ambition of the project is an enviorment that benefits from the unique, romantic setting and is inspired by it. Having learnt the lessons form the immpresive courtyards of Cambridge the design aims to recreate these powerfull yet spiritual spaces in Old Aberdeen. They will become centres to reunite th dispersed campus that have had to be compromized by the historic cottages. These will be complemented by niche suitable for individual studying and less formal social platforms. The above element will contribute to the diverse enviorment that celebrates the energetic interaction between the disciplines as well as enhances self development.
O l d A b e r d e e n - a n a l y s i s
Old Aberdeen is a historic heart of the city, located further in land from what is a commercial and business centre today. The romantic character of traditional Scottish architecture of old Aberdeen is contrasted with the 1920s large modernist development- the results of Univeristy expansion creeping from east and west into the picturesque High Street setting.
The main design challange was to develop an architectural language that would reconsile both aesthetics of the area.
At every full hour the High Street is flooded with studnets. They spill out through the tiny lanes, that have been designed to much lower capacity, than the vast modern plazas and faculty buildings. The permability is a real issue and one of the main ambition for the project is to improve the current state.
How much the functionality of the campus is compromised by the traditional cottages becomes apparent at lunch time. The High Street offers take away food and hot bevarages, however Old Aberdeen on a sunny day lacks the pleasent space where these could be enjoyed. Open spaces are too exposed to shelter from the wind. All trees are within the boundaries of private gardens. These, on the other hand, raise an issue of resident's privacy which is limited due to by large numbers of students that pass directly in between the gardens.
Undergraduate Centre
The first chapter of the intervention is an Undergraduate Centre. The design aims to encourage the dialogue and spontanious encounters. Allow the moments when you stop, meet the person you have seen in a laundry room, sit on a grass and have lunch to happen.
Almost every patch of green in old Aberdeen is a private property. Linkage between the Hight street and faculty buildings onto the west is weak- there are only few lanes from which all are extremly narrow. The design main objective is to solve these issues.
The building consist of three blocks of accomodation placed on the sides of a passageway in the centre. The spaces are connected above it with two linking bridges. The collonaide opens up to the 'secret gardens' spaces on both sides. These spaces offer an escape from the busy High Street or crowded lanes, Unlike other public spaces in Old Aberdeen, the gardens are places of social interactions, lunchspots on a sunny day, where on can simply sit down and enjoy nature. The design that strongly relates to the undergarduates' needs. After all, the first years at the univeristy is the time when life is full of new encounters.
P o s t g r a d u a t e C e n t r e
Alejandro's Aravena St. Edward's Student Resdidences in Texasis the project that infromed my design It is an attempt to summarise te architectural exploration in the field of collage buildings. The Aravena's proposal incorporates the ideas Alvar Aalto has expressed in the Baker House and Louis Kahn in hin Erdman Hall. Those designs experiment with the relationship first established in a monastery- a cell and a chapel.
My design's intent is to exhibit similar qualities. The concept is based on a strip of an accomodation that wraps and defines two courtyard. Since the architectural language of that strip, containing student's flats, nursery and a conference centre, remains reserved and modest, the attention is drawn into the two main events- a library and a refurbished church.
The St. Mary's Church lies just on the south of the plot and faces the High street directly. Because it is a B listed building there is a restrain to preserve the envelope. However, the inside can be completly reimagined and it is a clients wish to incorporate the interior within the design. The church will accomodate the exhibition space and a lecture theare which will hower above.
By designating a library as a second special piece the idea of a special, collective space in the monastery is highlighted. The library will echo the church by repeating the main and side bays rythm. The middle aisle will be a bookshelf area and a communal space. In the side bays, in between the structure, reading bays will be inserted. Warm oak of the individual study niches, juxtaposed with heavy brick columns primarly structure will create an intimate enviorment of rich textures.
