UCY school of medicine
2016, Nicosia
Type: European Architectural Competition
Prize: shortlisted
Size: 8500 m²
Status: Ideas-drafts
Architects: Georgia Daskalaki, Giannis Papadopoulos
Architects collaborators: Maria Dritsa, Maria Pachi
Architecture students: Andria Georgiou, Eva Constantinou, Louiza Tsiarlistou
Consultant architect: Eleana Malaktou
Consultant civil engineer: Thanos Giannimaras
Consultant mech. engineer: Theophanis Aggelopoulos
The proposal’s main reference was 18th century teaching rooms, with their characteristic amphitheatric arrangement and roof skylights. The idea was to design a vessel-building for students and instructors working as a “hive” of collective life, encouraging interaction, communication and gathering for the student community. An introvert building is proposed, which will function as an open “laboratory”, with direct visual connections between the different functional units. The form of the building incorporates significant clusters of outdoor spaces, in close relation to the adjacent departments of the campus and especially to the neighboring building of Biological Sciences. Moreover, the choice to create a small square in front of the proposed building is meant to strengthen the existing social life of the former undeveloped surrounding. The building is organised onto an amphitheatric arrangement of “L”-shaped wings, around an interior well-lit atrium. Each particular function (e.g. laboratories, staff offices, etc)is placed on each level of each wing. The wings are not of equal width: their width decreases per level so as to achieve the amphitheatric section of the atrium “opening” upwards.
At the same time, this differentiation serves the various area requirements set for each unit (e.g., the administration unit which has smaller spaces i.e. individual offices, is placed on the third and narrower wing while the spacious educational laboratories on the first wing). The fourth tier onto which the research unit is placed, functions as a large canopy for the spaces on the lower levels and the square formed in the south, while protecting the fronts of the building from the sun. Additionally, the heptagon shape of the roof creates a narrow building-front from the main pedestrian street of the campus, allowing for diagonal views to neighboring buildings and the landscape.
