The site lies within the leftover space between existing departments of the University, a former crossroads of intersecting streets which the Master plan will render obsolete save for the underground below. Much like a baker rolling out dough, the proposal rolls out the programme to create a thin 150m wide two storey high base. This wide flat building will maximise connectivity to the existing buildings by being within close proximity to them. The informal existing pathways that criss-cross the site are allowed to remain as the proposal is elevated from the ground, UFO, to create below an artificial landscape, a covered forest foyer that encapsulates a small hill or dune (stair entry), a forest (timber pilotis structure), and a suspended bridge (ramp).

A 150m wide circular plan produces a maximum of 17,700 sqm perforated at 30m intervals by courtyard atria for light. The programme for the school is organised in clusters of concentric circles around these atriums: the circles are of varying width according to the requisite programme: 5m wide for offices, 10m wide for classrooms, 20m for lecture halls etc. The concentric plan organisation of the school lies is contrast to the map-like form of the ground plan.

The roof of the school is both a space recreational (ice-skating, tennis) as well as a plateau for renewable energies: PV on the roof illuminate the forest foyer below… TBC

Design process brought to you by iPhone SketchPad.

Nowhere as good as the recently posted 000OFF_ハイスイノナサ”地下鉄の動態, Michel Gondry’s Star Guitar or even or own Olivier Giambattista’s rub 127SHO_SITE GUITAR, nonetheless Jacques Lu Cont’s Underground adds to the WHAT_lineage of train tracks…

Freetown? Freeplan!

Simulacrum. Philosopher Fredric Jameson offered photorealism as an example of artistic simulacrum, where a painting is sometimes created by copying a photograph that is itself a copy of the real. Other art forms that play with simulacra include Trompe l’oeil, Pop Art, Italian neorealism and the French New Wave.

In the images below, the thin blue line represents a proposal sited within the existing. It’s a low budget, hand-craft technique.

Architects like to align spaces! A realignment of the original Australian survey places the city of Brisbane in the state of New South Wales. No problem there one imagines.

Divide and rule. Neither Maori vs Pakeha, neither North vs South, but always the past, present and future. A holistic plan for the island befitting an island culture.

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129fil_soundscaper Steve Spacek brings Afrika Hitech to Village Underground… http://www.villageunderground.co.uk/events/dub-sessions-vol-1

Rewind:

Thanks to wikipedia and google translate : “The cake is a closed eaves (the underside of eaves) formed of several rows (one to four) tile-channel cantilever on the wall. The role of the cake is a move away from the runoff of the facade as a cornice, and secondly to support the pan and continue to slope roof.”