Ccit_communication, Culture And Information Technology Building
Located at the edge of the Campus the new Communication, Culture and Information Technology Building assumes the role of an interface. Closely bordered by a park on one side and a new courtyard garden on the other, its main circulation creates a linear public space that provides a line of connection not only between the Student Center and the future Library but also between the landscape and the new building's public and educational spaces.
The glazed vertical surface of this connection acts as a thickened membrane, a technological filter between the existing, natural material of the forest and the tamed, controlled environment of the building and its garden. Along its length it changes in tone, reflectivity and permeability.
At the level of the ground, this membrane becomes completely transparent. The line between exterior and interior disappears and the surface of the link allows the landscape to pass through. It forms a continuous public room that slips into and through the building and flows out into the courtyard, the landscaped roof of the garage and into the campus beyond.
Like the bark of the London Plane trees inhabiting and conserved on the site, the layers of landscape detach and lift, establishing a new topography from which grow both the building and its garden landscape.
Nestled into this landscape are the building's 'mineral' public functions, each with its own identity but tied together by this new terrain. Continuous, interwoven strands of this topography lift and wind vertically through the structure connecting the spaces between the wrapped program elements that shift in and out of the link at the upper levels.
This in-between space, occupied by platforms, bridges, stairs and ramps, fosters openness and an interaction between the occupants, the program and the outside environment that transgresses the envelope and creates a fluid public space carrying within it the elements of the program and the identity of the campus.
total area 10 800 m2 _ 116 250 sq.ft.
construction cost $ 35 000 000 Can
