ABOUT

Questioning the on-going approaches in the design of education campuses requires re-evaluation of some basic qualities of these venues as well as some assumptions that make the basis of architectural program analysis and that is believed to be unchangeable. Together with the new organizations to be established among the elements of the program, the characteristic qualities of “the place” where the campus will be located are included as a factor in the design of spaces both separate and overlapped. This may bring uniqueness and differentiation to be developed after such an evaluation. Place Place, Erzurum. The ground is cold, very cold and snowy. With the wind, everywhere freezes as hard as stone. Erzurum is one of the highest and coldest provinces of Turkey. Thus, it is a place of winter. Winter sports are done there. People prepare for winter. Houses are looked through, so that heat inside won’t escape; wind won’t come in through the chimney. The place is far away from the city centre. It is possible to access the place only through vehicles on wide roads. There are some other campus areas around which include buildings. Campus Campus, as a spatial program, includes a unity. These are campuses that unite structures that respond to the spatial needs of education and open activity areas. It accommodates education, social, cultural, artistic and sportive segments of life. With the unity it provides, the campus allows all students touch these segments and access with ease A campus within a structure instead of structures within a campus. The process of competitions where the ongoing campus designs started to create standardization and our evaluations on “place” and program collided at one point and fed each other to form our project motto: “A campus within a structure instead of structures within a campus”. Our motto classifies “experimented approaches” within a certain framework and provided the intellectual depth of the campus that we will design in that cold place and shed a light to spatial hints. Classroom blocks consist of regularly repeating classrooms. Those with facing to south-east and north-west are the spaces where the students have direct visual relation with the external space. The classroom corridors forms the façade of the campus within the structure. All program elements, other than the student dormitories, unite within a main mass to from the campus within the structure. Classroom blocks are positioned as the main masses defining the south-eastern and north-western borders of the campus. The intermediary volume those masses form, defines the plateau of the campus within the structure. The plateau starts with the external space in the main entrance in the north-east and ends with the sport centre in the south-west along with the intermediary value defined with the classroom blocks. The intermediary volume covering the plateau includes the campus functions other than classrooms. The intermediary volume creates a thermal buffer zone for all buildings as a non heated place. It serves as a mild section protected from wind and rains, warmer than outside and colder than heated spaces. It increases the heat protection and standards of comfort and accessibility for circulation inside the campus. Functions of intermediary volume like library, dining hall and science centre develop their architectural languages through more transparent and free forms thanks to the thermal conditions provided by the intermediary volume. On the other hand, the intermediary volume and the campus plateau forming in this intermediary volume make the intersection of the architectural program as a whole. Campus within the structure emerges in this intersection. All social, cultural, artistic, sportive and educational activities are included in this intersection.