Faculty of Law - University of Bihac

• Open
• Public
• South

GRID 8 x 8 m

The site is structured with a grid. This grid creates a basis for the economic and flexible development of the site. The grid size  8 x 8 can accommodate bigger programs (such as class rooms) and  smaller programs with corridors (such as offices).

ENVELOPE

The envelope defines the size of the building and varies from floor to floor. It houses the required room program, service areas and additional features to enable the development of an open, non-hierarchic and stimulating environment for teaching and research.

SQUARE

The building has an angular cut towards the street. This cut creates a triangular place in front of the building to mediate between the public street and semi-public ground floor of the building. It functions like an extended threshold and its specific shape signifies the new qualities of the site.

LIGHT + VERTICAL MOVEMENT

Atriums provide natural light at the centre of the building. They enable the design of a compact building with various possibilities for zoning. Programs can be connected visually through atriums. Each atrium has an adjacent staircase and its own idendity for easy orientation. Multiple staircases avoid a hierachic organization and allow flexible programming of the building.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

At certain locations atriums puncture the building perimeter . These punctures create additional qualities: a terrace on the first floor towards west, a covered garden area at the ground floor towards north and a multifunctional hall for teaching or graduation ceremonies at the second floor towards south.

INSIDE AVENUE

An internal avenue organizes and accommodates programmes at the ground floor. It is perceived as continuation of the external avenue opposite the building; the only existing qualitative outside space.  This semi public space creates informal and weatherproof meeting places for students and university staff.

BUILDING

The building design focuses strongly on the development of programmatic qualitis. These qualities will enable the university managment to flexibly develop an innovative institution for learning and reasearch. Positions of openings, cuts and materializations are contextualized to create a dialog with the surrounding. This results in a building design, which strongly focuses on the required programmatic qualities, tries to develop urban qualitites at this neglected  urban quarter and which signifies the contemporary development of the university landscape of the town of Bihac.