A light-weight college examine centre designed to be simply disassembled has received the prize for the most effective constructing in Europe. Longevity, permanence and a way of immutability may be the ambition of most architects, however Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke can be delighted to see their constructing tailored and reconfigured, or in the end dismantled and moved some place else altogether.
“We imagined the mission as a changeable system,” says Düsing, co-designer of the brand new examine pavilion for the Technical College of Braunschweig, Germany, which has been named this 12 months’s winner of the EU Mies award (previously the Mies van der Rohe award), the biennial European Union prize for modern structure. “We wished it to be a counter mannequin to the college’s high-rise constructing and its standard one-sided lecture halls. It’s extra like an extension of the panorama that may be eternally modified, a non-hierarchical house that the scholars could make their very own.”
Standing as a sublime white metal and glass pavilion, nestled amongst timber on the sting of the college campus, the constructing homes an open-plan association of versatile examine areas throughout two ranges. From the skin, it appears impossibly slender, a skinny sketch of a constructing fashioned by an oblong framework of toothpick-thin columns and beams. Inside, it opens up as a three-dimensional studying panorama, a modular body that invitations completely different types of inhabitation. Thick yellow curtains will be drawn to shut off explicit areas, creating advert hoc lecture rooms and quiet tutorial areas, whereas the furnishings will be moved outdoors on to balconies within the hotter months, offering out of doors examine areas sheltered by a deep overhanging roof – which additionally shades the inside in summer season.
The architects say they had been impressed by the unconventional superstructures of the Sixties, together with Cedric Value’s Enjoyable Palace – a versatile “a college of the streets” as soon as imagined for London – and Yona Friedman’s Ville Spatiale – a fantastical idea for a multilayered city-sized grid that may very well be always tailored. Neither of those got here to move, however a few of their modular ambition lives on in Braunschweig’s 3 x 3-metre spaceframe.
Whereas the bottom flooring is fully open plan, the architects designed the primary flooring as a sequence of “islands” related by bridges, creating separate examine zones between lofty double-height volumes. Some are on the centre of all of it, overlooking the motion under, others are extra eliminated and withdrawn, whereas desks across the edge really feel nearly suspended within the timber. Staircases hyperlink the completely different areas, inside and outside, giving the sense of being inside a sort of climbing body of studying. “It’s a bit like nesting,” says Düsing. “You provide an area that could be very complicated and has a variety of completely different qualities, then college students can are available in and discover their spot.”
The architects describe the constructing as appearing like a microchip on a circuit board, a central assembly level related to all components of the college campus. There isn’t a entrance or again, however 9 equal entrances throughout the 1,000 sq. metre (10,760 sq ft) constructing, making it really feel like an open hub, accessible from all instructions – even from the footpath alongside the close by river, welcome in members of the general public, too. The scholars have already adopted the construction and began so as to add their very own interventions: on the architects’ final go to, they discovered somebody had even strung up a hammock from the metal body. “It ought to really feel like an extension of the lounge,” says Hacke. “They arrive right here to eat and play playing cards, in addition to work.”
From a technical perspective, the constructing’s chief innovation is in its structural system. Impressed by Märklin building units (the German equal of Meccano), it’s constructed from a prefabricated equipment of components that may be simply taken aside. Every little thing is bolted or screwed collectively, fairly than welded or glued, in step with the broader motion in direction of round building, permitting whole constructing parts to be reused. The slender body is fabricated from hole metal sections which can be simply 10cm (4in) broad, and which additionally include {the electrical} wiring, lighting and plug sockets, in addition to housing drainage downpipes – taking out the necessity for suspended ceilings and raised flooring, the place such providers are normally housed.
The flooring are constituted of prefabricated timber cassettes, slotted into place, whereas the ceilings are lined with perforated acoustic panelling which, together with the curtains and carpeted flooring, creates a remarkably quiet setting. “It’s a counter mannequin to being within the library,” says Düsing. “There’s a background buzz, nevertheless it’s by no means overwhelming.”
The judges praised the rigour and precision of the mission – which was chosen from a longlist of 40 buildings throughout Europe – commenting on the way it “has taken a transparent architectural concept, scrutinised it and pushed it to the restrict.” Greater than only a constructing, they added, “it may very well be understood as a flexible system, merging technological innovations with a versatile and reusable precept.”
The mission has already garnered broad recognition in Germany, profitable the nationwide structure prize from the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, and hailed by one newspaper critic as “what the way forward for German building might appear like”. In a time of scarce sources, it has been praised for being as lean and economical as doable: all the pieces has been stripped again to the naked minimal, honed to its most important components to suit throughout the complete €5.2m (£4.47m) finances (€3.2m for the development).
The mission is all of the extra spectacular given that it’s the architects’ first ever constructing. Düsing, 40, and Hacke, 38, entered the competitors in 2015, simply a few years after graduating from London’s Architectural Affiliation, the place they’d met as college students. They now each have unbiased workplaces in Berlin, however come collectively to collaborate with others when wants come up. “It’s a survival technique,” says Hacke, of their unfastened community of seven. “We are able to work collectively once we want an even bigger workforce, then return to our smaller constructions.” It’s a nimble mannequin of follow that’s as agile, environment friendly and adaptable because the constructing itself.
The final winner of the EU Mies award, in 2022, was a equally open-plan and adaptable constructing for Kingston College, the palatial City Home designed by Grafton Architects. Earlier UK winners embrace Stansted Airport in 1990 and Waterloo Station in 1994, however there shall be no extra: since Brexit, British buildings are now not eligible for the €60,000 EU prize.
