OYO - Open Y Office, together with Arch&Teco, has received second prize among nine participants in an invited competition for a new Howest campus building in Kortrijk.
“We envision this new campus as an interactive field where we catch the classrooms in the middle; conceived as areas of focus. This field contains lecture rooms, informal meeting spaces, restaurant, bar, shop and lounge areas and wraps around the area of focus; connecting the park all the way up to the roof garden where students, teachers, alumni, companies and neighbors are invited to shop and exchange knowledge.”
With the challenge to translate the client’s ambition to position itself as a sustainable and vibrant knowledge center, the scheme works as a student “biotope” in which provides spaces for individual and communal growth.
“The building should be 24/7, adaptable, and translated into a flexible typology where its users can shop knowledge, process that knowledge, redevelop and re-display their work on the continuous knowledge track wrapping inside the building,” explained OYO. “A key element of the concept is to perceive the building maximum fordable throughout the micro-habitats of the students. Cross-pollination is strongly encouraged that way.”
An activated green space is wrapped around the slabs, interweaving the park through each floor. This creates a series of “green pockets” throughout the campus building forming public squares, terraces and garden space offer healthy and stimulating study environments.
Competition
Campus Howest KortrijkAward
Second PrizeProject Name
Campus Howest KortrijkArchitects
Location
Kortrijk, BelgiumOrganizer
HowestArea
12750.0 sqmProject Year
2014Photographs
OYO – Open Y OfficeCompetition
Campus Howest KortrijkAward
Second PrizeProject Name
Campus Howest KortrijkLocation
Kortrijk, BelgiumProject Year
2014Photographs
OYO – Open Y OfficeArea
12750.0 m2
