DESIGN - 2010
JEDDAH - KSA
KING ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
CLIENT /
LOT AREA /
BUILT-UP AREA /
CHALLENGE /
The main constraint and challenge was to avoid design sophistications so that the facility could be built in a very tight schedule, yet produce a structure that is up-to-date with contemporary design trends and functions.
CONCEPT /
Located in Asfan north of Jeddah, the educational college for women, part of King Abdulaziz University, comprises 4 main blocks opening up on a 4,000 m² central indoor multipurpose hall. A 3,900 m² administrative building houses the main reception and entrance hall, administration offices, a library and a praying hall. The multipurpose hall, accessible via the administrative building as well as directly off the campus, distributes to two classroom buildings of 3900 m² each and a laboratories building of 5,000 m² that includes a restaurant and recreation hall on its ground floor level.
Straight and simple geometric forms as well as conventional and readily-available construction materials were adopted throughout the conceptual reasoning. The buildings’ edges are defined by the typological configuration of the lecture rooms, inverting from the ground floor upwards, thus creating interesting, directional, and dynamic campus spaces, pathways and connections. The resulting facets produced by the volumetric play are colored, thus coding the different buildings on site.