An education campus organised around courtyards under severe climate conditions, offering students the option of moving from one air-conditioned space to another within the campus.
A TOUGH ARCHITECTURAL PROBLEM
Parallel to interpretation of the programme, the architectural user who is moved by the context and the climate, takes place the leading actor on the scene. Given the severe climatic conditions around the Mount Ararat, clues for the building typology emerged. Taking all the parameters together, the educational campus was envisaged as a challenging architectural problem, and treated with a plan strategy that created its own context.
FLOWING COURTYARDS
The buildings, with their multi-layered open spaces, are both autonomous and interrelated. While the courtyard interpretation is emphasised with a specialized and rigid language, the whole is treated as completely flexible and acts as an integral part of the interconnected classroom branches. The interconnected courtyards on the upper plaza level display a fragmented and fluid open space concept. With similar relationship with open areas for sports, it becomes a free platform that serves dormitories and student clubs.
INTERCONNECTED SPACES UNDERGROUND
Classroom units are oriented to gain maximum daylight. The corridor and interior spaces create visual and physical connections with the courtyard activities, while providing views to the social and multi-purpose spaces below the plaza. This provides both a rich open space layout and permeability and continuity of interior spaces.
The defined spaces between the courtyard buildings and the urban periphery are reserved for the administration and nursery block. Through these walls it is possible to access and participate in the life of the courtyard, to access the classroom blocks or the intermediate spaces.
