GS_GLOBAL SPIRITUALITY

Campus der Religionen, Vienna, Austria.

 

The first thing we think of when talking about a university campus, whatever the specialization, is that of a series of buildings interrelated with each other through an urban space that is generated between them. But in this case it has a very specific specialization, with a spiritual sense, and this changes the rules of the game regarding the creation of a university campus. We want to value absolutely all the elements that make up the campus, without neglecting any.
The city of religions must be something more than a series of buildings that delimit a square. We want to avoid urban environments without context which only serve for a mere circulation. We need those urban spaces that we create to take a step further and be the epicenter of a student social life and at the citizen level.

We need a university campus that meets certain parameters for society, that is identified in the urban fabric and that is of a community nature. A friendly environment should be an absolute priority when making the project, with buildings with an identifiable formal representation and that adapt to the urban fabric both in scale and in consolidation.

We cannot speak of buildings on the one hand, and urban space on the other as if they were two additions, but rather they must be totally related to create a rich space for society and the city.

The city of religions, wants to form the heart of a new university campus, uniting academia and religion, while pretending to be a pioneer in new standards in environmental sustainability. The buildings, with up to 6 floors, are covered by a photovoltaic plant blanket, which, with a low and narrow profile, frame the views towards the lagoon. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the buildings is their façade and geometry, optimized to balance transparency, maximizing daylight, exterior views, and opacity, maximizing insulation and reducing thermal bridge.

We want to identify opportunities to use the shape of the buildings to establish a new axis for the campus, and improve the links between the buildings of the urban context and act as a bridge to future regions of the city.