Composition IX, opus 18

The project deals with redesign rather than design, reinvention rather than invention. We maintain the original principles of S.J Embden's campus master plan: free-standing pavilions connected by elevated public walkways and a clear rectilinear morphology. We want to reconnect, to introduce social spaces into an existing structure by subtraction rather than addition. Public space is our design tool, the generator of the building's new organisation and form. We propose to build a new cultural centre, to define an open plaza and to extend the public space, not only in plan but in section as well. We create a series of voids that generate the social heart of the building, linking the different floors and forming interaction zones. Pushing the rooms to the column line generates, achieving environmental and social sustainability. We recreate the infrastructure for social interaction.