The design for the ASU Polytechnic transformed a decommissioned airbase into an inviting pedestrian campus that celebrates the desert landscape and creates a new identity for the program. By segmenting the 245,000-sq-ft program into five buildings, the architects formed four landscaped courtyards linked by a series of portals and arcades, creating a cohesive pedestrian campus.
The three largest buildings turn their long sides to the east and west protecting the courtyards and open-air atria from the monsoon driven rain and desert dust. These shady, open air atria provide environmentally sensitive social spaces that maximise visibility, daylighting, and the sense of community while minimising energy usage.
By removing 14 acres of asphalt and concrete and transforming it into a desert landscaped mall, storm water is slowed, captured in smaller detention basins throughout the new mall and in turn, used to nourish the desert landscaping. The strategy minimises the load on the existing storm water detention basin, but more importantly, it establishes a beautiful indigenous landscape as the heart of the new campus.
Flexibility and growth were central considerations. Consequently, the design relies on simple well-lit classrooms configured around a repetitive 30' x 30' module. Utilities and duct chases are located within the atria allowing the interior space to remain unobstructed, facilitating future reconfiguration. The use of a locally manufactured desert tough material palette and expressed building systems are both costeffective and responsive to the desert context.
Purposeful environmental strategies such as narrow building sections, shading devices and solar orientation allow 90% of the spaces to be eff ectively daylit, reduce thermal loads and contribute to its LEED Gold rating. The designs materiality, environmental and architectural strategies lead to an identity that is unique to its place and expressive of the Polytechnic's identity. The entire project, from master plan to construction start, was designed in seven months.
Former airbase becomes new campus for ASU Polytechnic
A collaborative and tactile design process achieves unexpected outcomes
Located in a metropolitan suburb of Melbourne, the design for Essex Heights Primary School is inspired by the composition of an 'oyster' - strong on the outside and beautiful on the inside. The school of a 450 student population prides itself on the ability to provide a unique educational setting, where a significant population of Special Needs children can operate confidently in a mainstream environment.
The brief for the project was to create a facility that would continue to celebrate this individuality where children of all physical and mental abilities can learn alongside one another in a completely uninhibited manner. Together, through an extensive consultative process with the school community, the design encourages a more flexible approach to learning in both an indoor and outdoor environment.
In line with the changing face of education, a circular and entirely accessible colonnade flanks an outdoor amphitheatre uniting three Learning Communities in which cohorts of 150 students can engage in a variety of modalities of learning. Within each Learning Community are homerooms co-joined with semi-transparent sliding walls and united by a collaborative space in which wet areas and resource facilities are located. The use of colour and texture has also been throughout to provide identity to each building. Unlike traditional school grounds which would encompass an oval, hard courts and play structures, the landscape environment has been designed to be more akin to a miniature botanical gardens.
The amphitheatre provides the pivot point from which all circulation and visual connection to and from the site are derived. The layering of architecture and landscape creates a diversity of spaces to provide relaxation, contemplation, informal learning and active play areas through the creation of spaces such as sculpture gardens, grassy mounds, mazes, productive gardens and learning terraces. In this garden setting, everyone has a learning space in which they can feel at home.
Colourful housing complex in Vienna comprises highly individual residential units
From an urban development perspective the site of this residential development is located in a very heterogeneous environment. The corner of the building facing the public traffic area assimilates the main directions of the adjacent buildings and a green zone is produced along the street as a buffer between public and private space.
The main target group for this housing development with ‘green’ surroundings at the periphery of the city comprises young families, the elderly and couples. More than half of the apartments have their own gardens; the rest have terraces or loggias.
In addition, the apartments – mainly terrace-house-style duplex units – feature a high degree of individuality; the differences in the apartments can also be seen in the exterior design and the façade. The loggias (‘eyes’) indicate the living rooms; the smaller windows arranged in varying patterns mark the bedrooms.
Located virtually at the ‘heart’ of the building, at the geometrical center of the ground floor, and adjacent to the stairwell is a multipurpose zone and children's play area with a sandbox and monkey bars.
The common zone consists of a wooden surface including a large sunken area for playing with sand and a vulcanised rubbers play area with a hill. In addition, there is a long multipurpose element designed for both sitting and lying on. Despite its small size, the area is intended as a space where residents can meet, talk, and play together.
