Campus Urbanism - MPhil portfolio

CAMPUS URBANISM

BENJAMIN CARTER

Design Portfolio Restructuring the Post-War/ Post-Institutional Built Environment

Master’s Project MPhil Architecture and Urban Design University of Cambridge

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THE CAMPUS AFTER THE UNIVERSITY

Following the departure of the university from the former UMIST Campus in Manchester city centre, this project proposes a critical re-evaluation of the modernist built environment to creatively restructure the campus. Campus Urbanism addresses the dilemma of the enclave condition and the redundancy of the institutional programme to offer alternative futures for the site in the realms of architecture, urbanism, and a restored public purpose. Moreover, the project seeks to exploit the idea of a campus as a place to encourage collective activity, establish a sense of common identity, and amplify the civic condition of the post-institutional campus.

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Collegiate modernism: a landscaped court at the UMIST Campus The layout of the campus is based on the quadrangle spatial type A varied ensemble of modernist monuments Superimpositions of the campus over the previous industrial condition

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RUINS OF MODERNISM

Judicious decisions concerning the merit of existing 1960s buildings drive this project. Underpinning this reasoning is the belief that the violent cycles of supersession which destroyed the post-industrial city cannot be repeated to destroy the postinstitutional campus. The part-abandoned condition of the campus is instead repurposed, balancing the environmental imperative for retention with the economic imperative for reinvention. Drawing upon intensive research into the postwar university campus and the modernist built environment, Campus Urbanism proposes a dual strategy in favour of an informed alternative to total erasure.

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A CITY WITHIN THE CITY

The university campus in the city poses a unique relationship of a self-contained polity within a larger urban environment, acting as a nested city, or an alternative city. The heterotopian condition of the campus is spliced back into the urban grid under this project, whilst re-asserting its unique identity with respect to the city at large. Campus Urbanism takes the latent qualities of the campus environment to generate an urban forum comprising a wider spectrum of civic society than its once rarefied collegiate purpose in order to establish a communitarian urban quarter.

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Campus plan based on an offset pedestrian grid Early conceptual scheme for new buildings (blue) lining defined streets Taxonomy of new buildings adhering to a cohesive formal language View of Atlas Way, the primary pedestrian route bisecting the campus which runs internally into the concourse of the Aula

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PROJECT FOR A PUBLIC UNION

Assuming a constituent idea of the campus is to act as a harbour for complementary and conflicting interest, the Aula project aims to embody the campus idea in an architectural form. The building acts as the primary foyer to the campus, offering a public interior for the post-institutional campus and the city as a whole, a place for overlapping programmes to co-exist in a singular vessel. As a distillation of the city condition, the campus condition is further concentrated into a campus in interior, through the clustering of event and the containment of space.

The purpose of the Aula is to assemble civic, cultural and social programmes within a public union, which converts the democratic space of a students union into a post-institutional context. Diverse audiences share the same public foyer, over which are raised two cabinets of cultural programmes, such as a library, theatre, public services and a gallery. However, fundamentally the Aula offers a communal place of appearance which evokes the idea of a ‘university of the streets’.

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AULA - CAMPUS IN INTERIOR

View of the library, one cultural programme held within the ‘cabinet’ Library reading carrels, which overlook the main foyer and hint at activity within the library Early response to the concept of a campus, indicated by small clusters of buildings and activities atop raised public stages

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Worms eye view of the aula foyer, showing small kiosk buildings within the main volume of the hall Views of the kiosks, which enclose smaller pockets of space and define a sense interior urbanism, a concept which is magnified in later stages of this project

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ARCHITECTURES OF INTEGRATION 7

Two types of integration characterise the Aula. Firstly, the project is integrated morphologically by plugging-into adjacent buildings with which a logical programmatic connection can be formed. This results in a first floor concourse, or internal street, which relates vertical and horizontal circulation within the union as a linear megastructure. Secondly, an urban integration is achieved through the extension of the ground plane into the building through large sash doors. The main civic facade acts as a membrane which is porous to the exterior of the campus, permitting events to bleed through the building envelope.

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AULA AS A CULTURAL ANCHOR

This architectural project aims to transfer the urban condition of the campus into a concentrated public interior, heightening this condition by means of spatial intensification. Foremost, the project provides the conditions by which individuals are free to be in public and as the public. This investigation into the idea of a campus, which hinges on the notion of multiplicity, prefigures further stages of campus renewal which strategise on the scale of urbanism beyond the singular building - strategies which address citymaking at large.

The Aula concourse acts as a fulcrum for vertical circulation within c the aula and horizontal circulation into adjoining buildings View of the bay doors into the aula from the main campus forecourt d

Within the aula, two ‘cabinets’ host cultural programmes in raised stacks of urban halls Aula concourse elevation, whose linear quality is counteracted by projecting stairs and bridges at ground level

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URBAN RECONFIGURATION 9

Campus design is reliant on the interrelationships between buildings over their autonomy. Here, the process of campus restructuring falls into multiple categories; first, the Aula; second, selective demolition and infill with new buildings; third, adaptive reuse of existing buildings; fourth, a common ground landscape.

Therefore, the fomal intent of the project is to balance proposed and existing architecture, and establish cohesion through spatial order.

However, it does more than create physical unity from diverse parts, but develops an urban idea which seeks to create from a redundant urban environment, a complete and significant city quarter which is more than the sum of its parts. a b

ANALOGUE ARCHITECTURE

Based on research into the form of modernist campuses - in order to develop a site and type-specific architectural response - the proposed architecture of new campus buildings can be understood to be analogous. Facades based on the composition of mass and grid apply to both new and existing buildings, insofar as to be mimetic of the modernist building stock. The frame acts as a primary architectural trope which provides a consistent tectonic rhythm for new campus architecture, one which permits a greater expression and use of the facade.

Townscape views: space is structured by a rhythm of open and c enclosed areas and controlled scenographically by a series of frames Four types of campus renewal: aula, infill, reuse, consolidation

View showing the relationship of existing buildings (red) and proposed (grey), and how the former structures the proposed urban grain

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A SEQUENCE OF CITY ROOMS

A spatial form which the project seeks to reinstate is that of the precinct. Precinctual planning proposes pedestrian areas with enclosed spatial envelopes in such a way to create a heightened urban experience - based on rhythms of exposure and enclosure - and the sense of ‘city rooms’. Within the wider campus plan, the precincts, each marked by a chequerboard square, represent points of concentration where activity and space reciprocate to create a relation between the citizen and the city, a setting for civic life.

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View along Atlas Way, whose length is divided by two overpasses Conceptual plan of the campus, illustrating how landscaped courts coincide with major points of convergence Aerial view of Atlas way, demonstrating its division in a rhythm of exposure and enclosure Chequerboards are located at key crossings and act as forecourts to key urban figures [b]

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SATELLITE ELEMENTS

Within the campus, a regular inventory of urban elements provides a varied spatial rhythm. Frame-like buildings are counterposed by urban figures - key programmatic and architectural monuments which are foregrounded against the normative armature of the frame. A consistent tectonic order structures the spatial experience of the campus, and permits new figures and existing buildings to become primary elements, providing a new setting and structure for their more significant status.

New routes into the campus from the city are driven through existing barriers to movement, enhancing the porosity of the site.

The campus grid is extended beyond its limits into the city grid, marked at their junction by freestanding satellite elements such as gateways and sheltered colonnades, which form static points to recognise the transition between twin conditions. From the campus threshold, the site remains appreciable as a distinct urban quarter, intensifying its appearance as a city within a city of a different spatial order.

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STRUCTURING THE PUBLIC REALM

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View through a rain garden towards a precinct, frame buildings provide a neutral scenography for key urban figures (centre right) and existing buildings (far right) View at the campus edge, along a newly-formed route into the site Gateways provide static moments from which the transition from city to campus is made apparent The frame is composed of a series of recursive tectonic elements Each precinct comprises of a unique arrangement of figure, pattern and platforms

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THE INHABITED FACADE

In a critique and counterpoint to the immediacy between interior and exterior of the existing building stock, the new architecture of the campus subtracts the space behind the frame in order to provide a civic depth to the building edge. Resulting in a series of loggias, colonnades and arcades, the recessed building line creates a sheltered intermediate zone and a space which filters between individual and collective interests. In one key instance at the centre of the campus, a section of an existing building is entirely hollowedout behind its facade to create a semi-internal ‘Campus Hall’. Within, key public artworks are concentrated in a partially enclosed loggia as a space given over to unprogrammed public use and temporary event.

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The Campus Hall, formed within the shell of an existing campus building, acts as a polyvalent sheltered space for temporary use Exploded view of the Campus Hall showing new structure and relocated artwork within the existing building envelope View showing the depth of the facade recessed behind the frame View showing the proposed deck access to residential apartments

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TYPOLOGICAL TRANSFER 15

In order to establish a resonant spatiality between new and existing, the architecture of the proposed buildings respect the pre-existing tower and podium type. A mid-level break between the tower and podium allows the each tower to express its monumental qualities on the skyline, whilst below the podium encloses the townscape.

At ground level, the building line is recessed to accommodate projecting bays, aedicular entrance structures, and specific elements which reduce the magnitude of each building to a scale familiar to the individual.

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A SCAFFOLD FOR NEW USE

To facilitate adaptive reuse of existing buildings, a scaffold approach is taken to enabling their new purpose. Involving the lining of building envelopes with new frames, this serves a twofold purpose in correcting their building fabric, while simultaneously opening the facades for terraces, and projecting window elements. The depth of the structure allows for individual appropriation of the facade, projecting internal life into the public realm.

A proposed tower and podium building, which responds to two c urban scales: the skyline, and the groundscape Elevation showing the interface of tower and podium (whereby a belt divides the two) as it surmounts the grade listed sculptural wall d at the edge of the campus

View showing a combination of civic devices: such as a covered arcade, a colonnade, and a projecting entrance aedicule Elevation of the existing MSS Tower with the addition (in the central bay) of a new scaffold which facilitates conversion from classrooms to apartments [d]