Campus universitario SUPSI Mendrisio
0951-AZP-CH-2013
Architect: AZPML
Status: Competition (2012)
Visualizer: Studio
Budget: 61.000.000 €
Scale: 14.000 ㎡ Large
Ratio: 4.357,14 €/㎡
Types: Education, University

The University as a continuum with the city

The new complex will need to act as a new urban enclave on the other side of the tracks, able to act as an urban centre on the North side of the tracks, from which the energy will radiate towards the former industrial areas, in the transformation to a more urban environment. In that sense, our proposal aims to consolidate the future complex as an oasis of urbanity, open to the public beyond its educational purpose. It is in that light that we are proposing the future complex to operate as a piece of urban fabric. The scale of the complex is very large, and that provides an opportunity to use the building to provide a public space that may be not only the centre of the school, but also a very high quality urban space that will be used by students and citizens alike.

Rather than making a large building with an internal space designed only for the students, our proposal is to break the scale of the building into a series of buildings surrounding an open public space, like a mini-campus. In doing this, we are enabling the continuity between the city and the school, rather than constructing the school as an entity independent to the city. The most contemporary tendencies in high education are actually proposing this continuity: The university should become an open forum for the exchange of knowledge, not necessarily limited to the academics, but open to the citizens, for knowledge to become a more integral part of society.

Relationship between the new complex and the city of Mendrisio

The complex sits in a key position in respect to the urban surroundings, with very different conditions on its edges. Our strategy in respect to these different edges is the following:

– A permeable campus: The massing of the complex has been largely dictated by the height limits on the different faces specified in the current urban policy. The current policy specifies the consolidation of the frontage to the tracks with a high cornice level, while restraining the scale of the buildings facing north. The other main strategy of the project relates to our main concept for this project, namely, the treatment of the complex as a campus that revolves around an open public space where students, academics and citizens will meet.

Our proposal is to break down the large volume of the complex into several buildings, linked between them with a socle which contains most of the common facilities. The five different buildings will be framing a central square and a series of small-scale pedestrian streets, which will be open to the citizens and will focus the life of the campus. We believe that during the warm seasons, the school life will take place in that public agora, while providing more modest climatised connectivity between the departments on the socle level, and a large foyer serving the different common facilities of the school: the exhibition spaces, the auditoria, the canteen, the crèche…

The proposed massing will allow for the different departments to share both adequate common spaces, both climatised and open, with controlled access and open to the public.

– A porous envelope: We have attempted to adopt a construction system which will make easy to apply the strictest regulation codes. By making a façade with very high thermal inertia and a modest amount of transparent elements, we have placed ourselves in an ideal scenario in terms of environmental performance.

The facade is designed as a varying but modular system of perforations with an overall degree of transparency of 30%. As a loadbearing, perforated membrane with high thermal inertia, the performance will be reached by perforating this membrane with visually and physically permeable elements. We have optimized this performance further by setting a system of variation of the scale of these perforations, which depending on the orientation of the face and of the diferent and specific functions hosted behind, will provide higher or lower transparencies. This system of fenestration enables us to reach minergie eco, given that the window areas and the level of sunshading can be easily adjusted within the aesthetic premises of the project. The system chosen to design this façade will ensure that shading coefficients and U-values of the envelope will be kept within comfortable ranges in the regulation.

– Environmental strategy: The massing of the complex has been largely dictated by the height limits on the different faces specified in the current urban policy. The current policy specifies the consolidation of the frontage to the tracks with a high cornice level, while restraining the scale of the buildings facing north. The other main strategy of the project relates to our main concept for this project, namely, the treatment of the complex as a campus that revolves around an open public space where students, academics and citizens will meet.

Our proposal is to break down the large volume of the complex into several buildings, linked between them with a socle which contains most of the common facilities. The five different buildings will be framing a central square and a series of small-scale pedestrian streets, which will be open to the citizens and will focus the life of the campus. We believe that during the warm seasons, the school life will take place in that public agora, while providing more modest climatised connectivity between the departments on the socle level, and a large foyer serving the different common facilities of the school: the exhibition  spaces, the auditoria, the canteen, the crèche…

The proposed massing will allow for the different departments to share both adequate common spaces, both climatised and open, with controlled access and open to the public.

Competition: Campus universitario SUPSI Mendrisio | Team: Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno Architecture, Dario Franchini, Maider Llaguno , Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Manuel Eijo, Valle Medina, Georgia Tsoli, Ravi Lopes Calamita, Charles Valla | Post date: 08/09/2014 | Views: 2.844