“Ascendant Campus” is a new typology for creating an open, collaborative, vertical, mixed-use institution. The main program is stretched vertically, allowing the center of the building to open to multiple roof gardens, with shared program occupying these intervening spaces. Circulation is pulled to the eastern side of the site, hollowing out the core of the building for maximum daylight. The public entrance for the architecture foundation is on the ground level, while the entrance for the school program is separated, via an external staircase to the second floor.
The structure of the building consists of four main columns pushed towards the corners of the site, with visible x-bracing for lateral stability. The roof rises above the adjacent buildings, elevating the view for the architecture galleries above the city. For the educational program, a vertical campus quad is created by pulling the classrooms out towards the perimeter. The classrooms are staggered vertically, creating collaborative spaces between them accessible via the vertical quad. The resulting atrium and recessed gardens provide for daylight on at least two sides of each learning space.
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