The New ACT Students’ Center, housing the student’s public life activities is integrated in the built environment and landscape of the campus without transforming it. Situated at the west side of the plot, it creates a new public central square, which will attract and promote the social interaction of the ACT community members.

The design objectives of the project are environmental integration, sustainability and resilience, functionality and flexibility, modularity and the ability to extend.

The form of the building derives by composing specific geometrical elements of the site and the existing buildings. A line up of prismatic concrete volumes of different sizes, intersected by a glass corridor, forms the ground floor. Closed gardens and a protected patio are created between the volumes. A linear volume made of modular steel frames, covered by a skin of ceramic tiles, is placed above them as a bridging gesture.

The public uses of the center are located on the ground floor, such as the student’s information office, the fitness center, the cafeteria, the students’ lounge, the multipurpose room and the auditorium. The last two could occasionally be open to external visitors. For this reason, besides the main entrance of the building, situated at the end of the main pedestrian axis of the campus, there is also a separate entrance for the auditorium. On the first floor, achieving more privacy, are situated the administration offices along with the guestrooms which are serviced by a separate entrance. The electrical and mechanical facilities are found at the basement.

The modularity of the building allows its construction in different phases, multiplying the possible future scenarios for the development of the students’ center. Due to its linear form and location on the site, the building can be extended towards the north side of the plot.

All building materials were chosen in respect of integration, sustainability and minimizing the maintenance cost. The environmental design strategy is achieved through a high performance building envelope. High insulation levels, airtightness and low emissivity glazing, as well as the large masses of walls with few apertures reduce fabric heat loss. Cross ventilation and double height spaces extract the warm air. The prisms provide shading to glazed areas and outdoor spaces, while the bespoke building skin of ceramic tiles in different patterns that function as louvers, reduces heat gains and controls the direct solar radiation. Green roofs minimize high surface temperature during summer and photovoltaic panels are placed on the roof structure.

Publications

• Archetype e-magazine, 8/12/2018