Archi-Tectonics

Responding to a unique design brief to design a new School of Architecture for Tel Aviv University, to be combined with the David Azrieli Archive and a commercial space on the ground floor, our design concept proposes a hybrid structure with new campus identity, and with a higher social / cultural / environmental awareness.

CONCEPT

Our proposal creates a socially flexible and climate-aware concept:

The commercial ground floor space with commercial, galleries and school entrance. We studied the future of RETAIL: here retail itself becomes more akin to a gallery, as online purchase and in-store pickup becomes the driving trends. Cinemas are found on the lower level, with cafes tucked underneath the seating area.
Volumes are separated by a raised plaza and sculpture garden: “The Garden of Strange Objects”, while large stairs give access to campus. From there, a solar chimney rises through the building creating natural ventilation.
The top volume, The Architecture School, has a large cantilever over the new entrance plaza, thus creating an iconic gateway to TAU. This entrance also gives direct visual access to the school’s robotics lab, a double height space. Studio lay-outs are flexible and connected visually across double-height shared spaces.
A pre-fabricated self-cleaning concrete screen wraps the building and shades the TAU spaces, while absorbing city pollution.

EDUCATON AS AWARENESS

The stacked building volumes are wrapped by exterior walkways and a self-cleaning, nitrous oxide-absorbent concrete screen, parametrically modeled to respond directly to the sun’s path over the site. Polluted air is cleaned before it is cycled through the building as passive ventilation, and direct sunlight is diffused into ambient light before comes into the studios’ flexible layouts and the Archive spaces. A major feature is the 5-story “Solar Chimney” passively drawing hot air up and out of the building from each level, increasing thermal comfort while drastically reducing cooling costs.

HYBRID

On the ground floor one finds commercial spaces in the solid stone plinth, with retail & galleries. The Azrieli Archive sits on the third level facing the plaza and functioning as an independent archive / gallery, with a shared space for the TAU. The school’s Library is accessed from the studios through a generous open staircase, and is visually connected to the Azrieli Archive through a double-height glass void.

The school’s studios and communal spaces occupy the building’s top three floors in a terracing collaborative shared layout, connected by the large spiral stair that wraps the Solar Chimney. It provides an informal interaction between the student body and faculty.

The Solar Chimney provides natural ventilation, and a suspended Auditorium connects to the roof garden, giving lecturers and their audiences panoramic views of Tel Aviv University and the ocean beyond.

A waterpark and square are created to absorb storm water and store it for dry seasons, while irrigating the gardens.

Credits

Year: Design 2019

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Client: David Azrieli Memorial Foundation / Tel Aviv University

Project Type: School of Architecture, Archive, Commercial & Garden

Size: 62,500 sq ft

Design Team: Principal in Charge: Winka Dubbeldam, Assoc. AIA | Project Leader: Justin Korhammer | Archi-Tectonics Team: Max Boerman, Bowen Qin, Dan Rothbart, Camila Salomao, Jaeseong Park, Xinyi Chen

Consultants & Engineers: WSP New York

Architect / Collaborator: BEA Architects, Batia Svirsky-Melloul, Tel Aviv