communication above all
that means making connections – between the existing part of the jku, the immediately neighbouring housing, the natural surroundings, the new buildings among themselves and, finally, inside the buildings.
seemingly playfully, the buildings respond to neighbours and surroundings in plan and section through changes in height and bends, avoiding a rigid structure, and by sinking into the slope with an entrance area below street level they create a level connection to the existing university site.
the landscape flows between, over and through the building with its partly floating office wings into the site, and ultimately interlocks with the building into a newly interpreted campus.
the generous internal atria connect the floors, let light reach the lower levels and so call for a new, communicative science working climate.
because of the large spans and the bridge structures needed in places – and the resulting deflections – the parapets are not placed at random either, but are at their largest exactly at the points of greatest deflection. this creates a varied effect outside and more individuality inside – a play reinforced by louvres of different depths and spacings.
in the end, even the individual elements of the façade communicate with each other…
