Archinect
Nicolò Lewanski

Nicolò Lewanski

New York, NY, US

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CUHK Campus

 The program of the campus puts together 450000 square meters of footprint of the most different functions in a nice natural environment in the borders of Longgang city all together as an extension of Shenzen University CUHK. The question of how to act in a natural environment, and therefore how to manage the relationship between interior and exterior, has come to our attention first. The idea has been to experiment a masterplan created from the addition and juxtaposition of a certain number of rooms, instead of composing it based on buildings as anyone would normally do.
This way, the rooms would be completely interchangeable, leaving room for the requisite of flexibility, and at the same time aggregating two modules of 9 meters, a open air corridor could have been added to each side. This ideal section then becomes extruded in square forms, generating slightly different patios around the masterplan, from which the user can easily sneak in and out thanks to the voids left from the system of the random rooms.
A central point that provides orientation is found in the circular library, that varies its shape maintaining the same concept.  
On the upper campus the typology serves the logic of simply fullfilling the area which is individuated following the level curves and causing the less impact possible.
The shape of the lower campus gets more straight when arrive sin contact to the road, creating a shape that guides the visitor to discover the context.
The study of the typology here created is deeply done as well as the architectural design, making this project go through a variety of scales and situations.
Ultimately, it is a broader reflection the one which is brought up by such an organization of the program, namely the endless one between generic and specific. The global organization brings a generic space to the table which can be filled with any type of room as long as it fits 8.1 x 8.1 m grid. But which will be the use of these spaces, we cannot foresee; thus, the success of the project is all to be demostrated in practical terms and situations.

 
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Status: Competition Entry
Location: Longgang, CN
My Role: Trainee
Additional Credits: Francine Houben (director)
Nuno Fontarra (associate)
+ team of 4
+ Urbanus office in China