ArchShowcase Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. TECHNICAL AND INDUSTRIAL VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL in Bursa-Nilüfer, Turkey by M artı D MimarlıkNovember 2nd, 2013 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: M artı D Mimarlık PROJECT BACKGROUND As its corporate social responsibility project, the Automotive Industry Exporters Union has targeted at establishment of a school to encounter the need for qualified employees in the sector and the initials steps for this school to be registered under the Ministry of Education have been taken in 2008.
Project Design Phase
Construction Phase
Other Project Groups
With the intention to reflect its contemporary vision upon achievement of the project objectives, the corporation has organized an invited architectural project competition. The preliminary designs prepared and presented by thirteen invited offices have been evaluated by a jury consisting of invited academician architects from architectural schools of Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa, representative of the Chamber of Architects and representative of the Directorate of Education and finally, the project designed by M + D Architectural Office has been considered worth of implementation as ranked first among others. JURY REPORT The project is appreciated for the maturity of its programme formulated within a plain mass in harmony with the topography, green pattern and other environmental aspects; the spatial fragmentation and balanced distribution of its rather intense building programme, yet far from causing any overloaded framework of facilities; the transparency and continuity of outdoor spaces created; the potential of the main circulation space that connects building masses of various functions with one another providing for rich indoor activities and multi-purpose uses at the same time; beyond the functionality of its general layout and interior spatial alignment, the fact that it may contribute to formation of a social and cultural environment required for an educational building; in addition to establishment of a strong relationship between the dormitory blocks and educational facilities, the different setting created by these dormitory blocks by way of also offering an independent living space within the entire framework; and for the overall attitude of the design approach manifesting its openness to current architectural approaches and new research. MAIN PROJECT CONCEPT AND FORMULATION OF THE PROGRAMME Among those factors influential upon formation of the main concept take place the place-specific data including the olive grove within boundaries of the land having an acute slope as well as location of the site at a yet developing environment and the idea of creating such spaces where interaction between students are supported, since this interaction is what the contemporary approaches in education specifically need. With the intention to protect the olive grove that acts as a point of attraction within its environment, the building mass has been located adjacent to the line from which the slope and the olive trees take start and the harmony of the spatial scheme with the land slope is provided by the design of stepped levels. The two worlds of education and of daily life at the dormitories have been divided at the cross-section towards which the olive trees extend over as a green cover. The dormitory buildings are oriented towards the olive grove. Contemporary approaches in education pave the way for developing personal skills, creativity and dialogue while motivating social relations. Departing from this point, the building is given an introvert layout availing for creation of an inner space with voids to encourage interaction between students. With its capacity of 720 students and various facilities including the dormitory, lodging (for employees), sports hall and conference hall, the intense functional layout of the education building is designed as consisting of discrete parts with different elevations within an integrated whole. The layout of discrete blocks in the site plan is connected with a social artery to which facilities of different strata are articulated in the third dimension, i.e., via a transparent gallery and a series of successive courtyards. Offering enriched means of social living as if resembling an urban square, this gallery is supported by the sports hall and the conference hall on the ground floor and spaces like the conference hall and the student canteen as well as workshops and classrooms on the entrance floor. The gallery acting as a social artery avails for a visual dialogue while it visually connects the gallery with outer courtyards. When walking along the urban streets, one can possibly have connections not only with the inner gallery, but also the outer courtyard. In order to support such diverse means of communication provided within the building, effort is also spent for creation of a dynamic environment with use of vivid colours. The visual richness of the building is further reinforced with its fragmented building form as well. PROGRAMME The functional layout of the building consists of three main activity areas including education/training, accommodation for boarding students and socialization in addition to its facility areas. Education Facilities: As a school to provide education in six different fields such as Information Technologies, Electric and Electronic Technologies, Industrial Automation Technologies, Machine Technologies, Metal Technologies and Motor Vehicles Technologies, the classrooms of the first year will be places for basic education and theoretical knowledge. Professional lectures, on the other hand, will take place at studios, which require spacious areas. Particularly the studios for Machine, Metal and Motor Vehicles Technologies additionally require special features for placement of specific tools and machines. Storage rooms, tool rooms and student dressing rooms that function in relation with the studios, and the classrooms for theoretical lectures all take place among the programme of each field. Field studios are spatially organized in proximity to the facility units and the academic staff. Socialization Facilities: In addition to the dining hall/cafeteria and the canteen, there also take place a conference hall with a capacity of 540 persons, and an indoor sports hall accommodating basketball, volleyball and handball courts. Accommodation Facilities: The functional programme includes a dormitory with a capacity of three hundred students, the fifty of which are female students, and four lodging places for teachers. In the dormitory, the students are to stay at rooms for five persons for their living, studying and resting activities. Common spaces are designed to shelter common study rooms, chat rooms and TV watching rooms. In bedrooms of the three-storeyed two dormitory blocks that are connected to the entrance and the common spaces, the main intention has been to create personal environments. The sleeping-studying places and closets specifically designed for every student are each produced with the very same intention. The existing green pattern – olive grove is purposely intertwined with the building mass in the design. While one part of the various terraces provided at different elevations are converted into open areas for students, the focus at other parts has been to ensure continuity of the green. By this means, the professional education/training rooms (classrooms and studios), social facilities (canteen and cafeteria/dining hall), the cultural facilities (multi-purpose room and the library) and the sports hall are all connected to the galleries, which has in turn aided in connection of all spaces with one another through courtyards and the fluently designed galleries that were given flexible and permeable characteristics in their design. The idea to cover the terraces of education units with vegetation in harmony with the land slope has not only provided for continuity of the green, but also helped in placement of accommodation facilities (dormitory and lodging) separately from social and cultural facilities, at a location facing this green pattern created by the olive grove. The education building could therefore meet the idea of differentiating between the daily and private life of its users. The terraces designed to take place at different elevations of the building have been allocated to outdoor playtime area on the classrooms floor and were used as roof gardens on the resting hall floor of the dormitory. Landscape design intends to give the roof garden a rural atmosphere. BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES The notion of the building as a technical school has paved the way for the approach to reflect the mechanical systems upon its spatial formation. With the intention to design the project in a simple and clear-cut framework in structural terms, the reinforced concrete blocks are tied with steel beams and transparent planes covered with glass veneer. In order to minimize the diversity of building materials, the coating layer of ceilings, floors and walls has been removed. This has encountered the demand to accelerate the process of construction as well. Despite the ambition against having any coating or casing over all interior and exterior concrete surfaces during the phase of schematic design, the decision has been taken during the application phase to coat the exterior surfaces with fiber-reinforced prefabricated concrete pieces due to insufficiency of trust in achieving any concrete construction of high-quality. It has been C40 reinforced concrete material poured. In uncoated concrete surfaces, circular columns are moulded in paper form (use and throw type). In addition to rapid continuation of the application process, this has also protected the building material during the phase of construction. Finish plasters are applied upon partition walls. Specific details have been used to separate the finishes from concrete surfaces at points where plaster finishes meet the concrete. While the architectural difference between the load bearing and partition walls are emphasized further, the concrete surfaces could be protected especially during painting of plaster finish surfaces as well. Regarding the pavement of floors, concrete epoxy hardeners are applied upon smoothed rendering. In classrooms, the canteen and the cafeteria, dining hall, suspended timber ceilings have been used for precautionary measures on acoustics. Contact M artı D Mimarlık
Tags: Bursa-Nilüfer, Turkey Category: School |