Arch2O.com

Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
These two student dormitories ? a courtyard building in the forest and a high-rise building with a climbing wall ? stand on the campus of Enschede University in the East of the Netherlands. Thanks to a functional mix of housing, study and leisure and the arrangement of the buildings as solitaires in the landscape, the university compound from the 1950?s is one of the few real campuses in the Netherlands.In order to avoid interference with the landscape, we found two more or less abandoned parking lots in strategic locations.
Courtesy of Arons en Gelauff Architecten
 Chaos and Order: Courtyard Building in the Forest

On the northern parking lot, we realized a courtyard building with 152 studios. Originally, part of the site was occupied by a supermarket, around which the new building had to be designed. By now the supermarket has been demolished and re-established on the ground floor of the other student dorm. What remains is a ?phantom shape? ? a setback in the rectangular volume of the building, which serves as a forecourt and marks the entrance. Behind it lies a big interior courtyard, dissected by a footpath that forms an extension of a former shooting range in the forest. Courtesy of Arons en Gelauff Architecten – Plan
Student dorms usually don?t look too tidy, and their inhabitants tend to take possession of the adjoining public space. Therefore the block was placed as close as possible to the forest, l...