After Heatherwick Studio won the competition to design the Learning Hub at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the cocoon-like building finally opened its doors this week. Alongside Heatherwick Studio, CPG Consultants worked as the Lead Architect and Sustainability Consultant for the Learning Hub. The 8-story building is NTU Singapore's first redevelopment in 20 years, and is also part of the university's larger £360 million ($536.3 million) redevelopment plan for the campus.
Although the building looks enclosed from the outside, the mixed-use Hub forgoes the traditional box-shaped layout of university buildings to encourage instead an open learning environment for the school's 33,000 students and faculty. Tapering toward a central public atrium, the building's 12 concrete towers provide a total of 56 cornerless smart classrooms that NTU designed to reflect their new pedagogy that promotes small-group teaching and active in-person learning, an important method to uphold in the digital information age. According to the architects, these ideals extend to the balconies and gardens outside the classrooms.
Aside the building's textured curved facade, another distinct detail is its concrete stair and elevator cores, which were three-dimensionally embedded with 700 drawings pertaining to various academic subjects commissioned from British illustrator Sara Fanelli.
To keep students cool in Singapore's year-round warm temperatures, the central atrium is naturally ventilated to maximize air circulation around the towers. Each classroom is also cooled through silent convection, thus eliminating the need for A/C fans.
"Heatherwick Studio’s first major new building in Asia has offered us an extraordinary opportunity to rethink the traditional university building. In the information age the most important commodity on a campus is social space to meet and bump into and learn from each other," Thomas Heatherwick said in a statement.
Project Details
Project Name: Nanyang Technological University Learning Hub
Location: Singapore
Completion: March 2015
Site Area: 2,000 sq.m.
Gross Floor Area: approx.14,000 sq.m.
Building Height: 8 storeys
Client/Owner: Nanyang Technological University
Lead Architect: CPG Consultants, Project Lead - Vivien Leong
Design Consultant: Heatherwick Studio, Project Architect - Ole Smith
Main Contractor: Newcon Builders
Sustainability Consultants: CPG Consultants
Mechanical & Electrical Engineers: Bescon Consulting Engineers
Civil & Structural Engineers: TYLin International
4 Comments
It looks a little claustrophobic, but maybe in person it's a bit more uplifting.
cornerless smart classrooms
The naturally vented atrium and convection cooling are smart. The classrooms? LOL Digital age marketing.
I rather like this building as an object, and I think the cladding is nuanced and interesting. The geometry of the planning is fascinating - this reminds me of Bruce Goff.
But I agree that the classrooms seem dreary and claustrophobic. And a building like this succeeds or fails on the quality of the classrooms for the users. I understand that the environment surrounding the site is grim and unappealing, so an introverted building makes sense here, but the lesson of Goff is pertinent. Goff's buildings were almost always introverted, but his interiors were profoundly sensual and human-centered. I wish they had spent a bit less of their budget on tricky cladding and a bit more on human beings.
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