ICT Cubes

Aachen / Germany, 2014

Description
BRIEF: A new institute building for six IT-related institutes in the field of electrotechnology in Hörn.

ADDED VALUE: As the site has only a scattering of buildings, a large proportion of the free space can be used as a green campus. This enhances the surrounding quarter and at the same time acts as a defining green approach to the “RWTH Campus Hörn”.

ICT CUBES: The previous character of the built environment – which provided only low-quality open space in the shape mainly of back yards and left-over areas that received little sunlight – is turned around: two highly compact volumes, the Cubes, will be built and surrounded by a maximum of green space. Within the two buildings the various institutes will be organised floor by floor. The place where the two parts of the complex are connected to each other by means of a glass bridge forms a functional and communicative common zone: this core zone accommodates service areas such as seminar, conference and social rooms that are used by all the institutes. The design of the façade is intended to reinforce the effect of the two structures as “cubes in the park”. In accordance with the requirements of the task, a parametric code was developed jointly with the user that defines the structure of the outer skin of the façade. Quotes and maxims that are relevant to the research were translated into a numeric code according to a specific process*. This code – consisting of the digits 0,1 and 2 – is the basis for the parametric façade model, in which each of these three digits is translated into one of three types of strip. In this way the sun-shade strips placed in front of the inner façade with its band of windows act as carriers of data for the faculties housed in the buildings, and simultaneously generate a lively façade that lends the building an identity.