The aim for the design of the Varaždin University Student’s Restaurant and Home was to connect the new building with the old student’s home with the restaurant treated as a separate pavilion. This first prize winning design by SANGRAD Architects + AVP Arhitekti creates a new square between both buildings, which is defined by the main entrance to the existing building and the new restaurant volume. Along with the student’s home on the west side, the restaurant has a visual connection with all three buildings through an access plaza, while the student’s home towards the east continues the structure of the existing house forming a block. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The basic parameters in the creation of a new urbanism come from the existing student’s home. The restaurant is positioned along the west side of the plot and while being near to the existing historical building (old student’s home), the approach established a non-inciting relationship. The whole outer frame of the block is closed, except for the southeastern tract that opens to the west connecting to the restaurant. The student’s restaurant is a simple, low, compact trapezoidal pavilion set on the main square surrounded by green areas.
On the other hand, the new student’s home is a large volume that grows at cascading levels starting at the attic level of the existing home on the west and follows a “C” shape design, being the highest point to the northeast and gradually lowering again towards the opened end of the block on the southwest. The terraced treatment of the upper floors of the new building creates a specific, imaginary slope, as a metaphor of the sloping roof of the existing house, and on the other hand combines the vocabulary of the straight slab design of the compact restaurant.
The power plant on the eastern part of the site follows the same spatial and formal principles as the restaurant and student’s dormitory: the edgy shape of the building is formed by the irregularity of the plot.
The University of Zagreb, Campus Varaždin new design aims for a sustainable approach. By using solar collectors on top of the restaurant’s roof, photovoltaic films on the southern facades of all buildings, ecological local materials, rain and waste treatment and using a green-energy power plant fueling the whole campus, this complex will be functioning on a low-energy consumption basis and will be one of the first of its kind in Eastern Europe.
Architects: SANGRAD Architects + AVP Arhitekti Location: Varaždin, Croatia Team: Vedran Pedišić, Mladen Hofmann, Iva Marjančević, Hrvoje Davidovski (SANGRAD Architects), Erick Velasco Farrera (AVP Arhitekti) Collaborators: Prof. Boris Baljkas, Željko Bertić Owner/Client: University of Zagreb, Campus Varaždin Status: Competition entry – 1st Prize Building Area: 14,200 m2
