London-based team Heatherwick Studio rethinks the university buildings model with this eight-storey project, in order to change the conventional university typologie.

Corridors and communicative spaces are avoided and the architects stand for a participative structure, where students, teachers and other users come into continuous contact for a common enrichment.
Awarded by the Singaporean government because of its sustainability, the university hub designed by Heatherwick Studio, in collaboration with local architects team CPG Consultants, holds tutorial rooms as well as classrooms in several towers interconnected by a central space.
 

Description of the project by Heatherwick Studio

London-based Heatherwick Studio collaborated with local firm CPG Consultants on the Learning Hub, a new eight-storey teaching facility at Nanyang Technological University.

Heatherwick Studio won a competition to design a Learning Hub for a university in Singapore.  The hub, completed in March of 2015, is part of a £360 million scheme by Nanyang Technological University, and is the first redevelopment of its campus in twenty years.

It was clear to us that since the advent of the internet and low cost computers that there has been a distinct shift in how students approach educational facilities. University buildings have ceased to be the only site where students are able to source educational texts, and have become unappealing spaces with endless corridors, no natural daylight and only hints of other people’s presence.

The studio’s approach was to redefine the aspiration of a university building, and to once again make it an essential part of the tertiary education experience. Within this new context the purpose of a university is to foster togetherness and sociability, so that students can meet their fellow entrepreneurs, scientists or colleagues in a space that encourages collaboration.

The hub’s form is dictated by its function, and brings together 56 tutorial rooms into a structure without conventional corridors, which have traditionally created social separation and isolation. The learning hub is porous- students can enter from 360 degrees around into a large central space which links all the separate towers together. Each tower is made up of a stack of classrooms which build up gradually, with gardens on selected floors.

Another inspiration for the hub was a wish to break down the traditional square forward-facing classrooms with a clear front and hierarchy, and move to a corner-less space, where teachers and students mix on a more equal basis.

In this model, students work together around shared tables, with teacher as facilitator and partner in the voyage of learning, rather than ‘master’ executing a top-down model of pedagogy.

Each of these tutorial rooms faces the large shared central space, allowing students to continually feel connected to all the other activities going on in the building.

In 2013 the learning hub was awarded the BCA Green Mark Platinum Award for sustainability by the Singaporean government. The award is a benchmarking scheme which incorporates internationally recognized best practices in environmental design and performance.

The studio worked with local architects CPG consultants on the project.

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Architects
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Design consultant.- Heatherwick studio. Project lead.- Ole Smith. Lead Architect.- CPG consultants. Project lead.- Vivien Leong.
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Collaborators
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Sustainability Consultants.- CPG consultants.
Mechanical & Electrical Engineers.- Bescon Consulting Engineers.
Civil & Structural Engineers.- Tylin International.
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Client
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Nanyang Technological University.
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Main contractor
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Newcon Builders.
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Area
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Area/size.- Site area 2,000 sqm
Gross floor area.- approximately 14,000 sqm
Building height.- 8 storeys, 38.3m.
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Environmental performance
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Green Mark Platinum.
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Dates
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Start onsite.- August 2012.
Completion.- March 2015.
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Photography
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Thomas Heatherwick established in 1994, Heatherwick Studio recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. Today a team of 180, including architects, designers and makers, works from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.

At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a working methodology of collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit of curiosity and experimentation.

In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments. Through this experience, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects, with a particular focus on the large scale.

The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.

Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects; a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University of Dundee, University of Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Manchester.

He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010, Thomas was awarded the RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to design.

In 2013 Thomas was awarded a CBE for his services to the design industry.

 

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Published on: March 10, 2015
Cite: "Learning Hub in Singapore by Heatherwick Studio" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/learning-hub-singapore-heatherwick-studio> ISSN 1139-6415
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