The question of preservation offers a great challenge to contemporary architecture. As nowadays we are concerned more than ever in intervening in existing urban fabric rather than building from scratch, we’re re-designing rather than designing, re-using rather than building anew.

Since the building has changed its program we believe that rather than reconstructing the original building we should use the original design principals and create a suitable solution for the new program. We would like to extend the continuous public connection from the campus scale to the building scale. We create new social zones stretching in section throughout the building. These communication zones provide public and semi-public spaces inside the building and create space for interaction, leisure and contact between the students. By clustering the single rooms into groups and “pushing” them back from the original façade line, each room gets a private balcony providing fresh air and light as well as privacy. This operation defines the architectural language of the building as it creates a double façade, not only environmentally sustainable but also socially sustainable.

This articulation of the elevations creates a new architectural language based on the original principals defined by the master-plan – the simplicity of the curtain wall, flexibility of use and a consistent and expressive system of measurement, adding to the ensemble, to the architectural “family”. It allows a “reading” of the building from the outside, articulating and differentiating between private, semi-public and public program and creating a “living” green façade.