Archi-Tectonics

Responding to a unique design brief to create 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 proposes a new campus identity, with a higher social / cultural / environmental awareness with this hybrid structure.

Our proposal generates three stacked volumes;

The commercial ground floor space with galleries and school entrance. The mall itself becomes more akin to a gallery, as online purchase and in-store pickup becomes the driving trend in retail. Cinemas are found on the lower level, with cafes housed underneath their seating slope
An elevated plaza with sculpture garden and access to campus through large steps, “The Garden of Strange Objects” steps up to the second level, connecting the city and the campus with a semi-enclosed public space for students to exhibit their work
The School is the top volume with a large cantilever over the new entrance plaza, thus creating an iconic gateway to TAU, with direct visual access to the school’s robotics lab

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 reducing cooling costs.

The glass building volumes are surrounded 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 space layouts and the Archive’s storage.

The triple-height Azrieli Archive sits above, on the third level facing the plaza and functioning as an independent museum with flex space that could easily be shared with the school. 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 alley.

The school’s studios and presentation spaces occupy the building’s top three floors in a terracing collaborative-working layout, as a large stair spirals around the Solar Chimney to connect the three levels in a grand gesture providing informal interaction between the student body and faculty.

As the Solar Chimney slants up and out of the building to the South, a novel “Floating Auditorium” suspends itself in the roof plane to the North, giving lecturers and their audiences panoramic views of the newly transformed Tel Aviv University and the greater city, as well as circulation connection between the sixth level and the building’s green roof social space.

Credits

Year: Design 2019

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Client: David Azrieli Memorial Foundation / Tel Aviv University

Project Type: School of Architecture and Masterplan

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