The University of Jordan is looking to add a new faculty at the campus, a college for the arts and design, where the music, performing arts and arts are combined. It is to be vibrant, fresh and exciting for both the students and the professors. The Deen of university proposed a competition brief where different architectural firms submitted their thoughts on the design. Maisam architects and engineers was one of the invitees and their design took first place consequently the project is now under construction.
The college of art and design is a faculty that supports the production of young artists, where the school excels in the academic preparation of its students, it aspires to forge rigorous, creative thinkers and makers in spaces that inspire ideas and provoke experimentation and production. The building is split into two faculties ‘the practice and the theory’, according to function The theory and academia requires enclosed spaces for concentration, thinking and educational enlightenment while the practice and performance need a more open to public space where inspiration, presentation and interaction takes place. The theory is represented in a vertical mass/ element that elevates up reaching higher levels through theoretical education while the practice is low and horizontal in mass, allowing for maximum area for public use as well as students self expression.
The meeting point between theory and practice, translates a fusion of knowledge that brings out the creativity and expression in students hence is an open courtyard that promote student gatherings, meeting of students and faculty members as well as interaction between the university and the society/community.
The conceptual approach of the arts and design building, the relation between the building and the university campus as well as positioning with external roads and accesses, resulted in a composition of two independent volumes fused by an open plaza. This space not only serves as a practice and performance arena, but also becomes the crucial artistic source of inspiration from the interaction that it promotes. The college’s diverse functions of theory and practice make it interesting in its philosophy, architectural formation and purpose within the society; it is open to its user’s imagination, and intends to be open to the creativity of students and teachers, families and the public, encouraging campus and community collaboration.
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