Campus University of Applied Science

Düsseldorf, Germany
2009
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The origins of European research and teaching are not to be found inside interior learning spaces, but instead in the public garden. Plato for example taught his students in the shade of an olive tree in a publicly accessible olive grove. Our design for the new university campus builds upon this idea of the learning landscape as the central element and develops this idea further. The idea of landscape manifests in multiple ways in the design: A sequence of parallel building volumes slips under the a park-like surface creating a topography with a valley in the center while the buildings gain height toward th edges of the campus. The green valley offers an active interface between the surrounding city and the campus. At the same time a sequence of interior and exterior learning and communication spaces of different scale is distributed throughout the the landscape. It clearly reflects the hierarchical logic structuring the overall organization of the campus: a base of shared infrastructures, themed clusters and individual schools. The topography is also integral part of the „zero-emission“ energy concept as it maximises solar exposure on the one and possibility of heat exchange with the ground along the valley on the other hand. The result is a hybrid landscape, partially grown, partially engineered.
FAR Frohn&Rojas + Rheinpark_R, Kaiser Developments, Max Koch
Project Team: Marc Frohn, Mario Rojas Toledo, Natalia Becerra, Martin Kraushaar, Friedrich Prigge, Adriana Chavez, Axel de Stampa, Brett Riegler
Consultants: FKJ, IB-Paulus, Stütz, Terraform Sandra Bartoli
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integration of the new campus into the urban fabric and green infrastructure along the old rail tracks
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the exterior landscape is understood as a hybrid, partially grown and partially engineered
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