Interior Magazine of Taiwan published University Center in its October 1999 issue: Office & Office Working Environments. The project description which follows is not a transcript of the article; a translation of the Mandarin text is not available.
The goal is unification: physical, social, and architectural. The additions span and connect across a prior planning chasm - a service drive and grade change - between the early twentieth century academic campus and the post-war residential campus. Campus life, segregated by status, age, and distance, joins in this new center. The building systems and finishes weave through new and old alike, unifying yet respecting.
The original University Center was a square 1960's brick building located between the original academic campus to the west and the principal residential quadrangle to the east. This project adds to both the north and south sides of the existing structure, transforming it from object to bridge-both metaphorically and literally-connecting academic and residential life. A service drive separating the University Center from the principal academic building has been transformed into a pedestrian walkway. This passage fuses the previously disjointed academic and residential quadrangles, creating the missing link in a sequence of landscaped pedestrian passages though the campus center.
Politics
The columns of the existing Center, repeating the form of the building itself, are square. By contrast, the addition is structured by directional concrete piers. On the south side, these piers grain the campus passage through the new portico, from the residential quadrangle to the academic lawn. On the north side, the piers rotate 90 degrees to the north-south axis, graining that portion of the addition back into the existing building and campus center.
A new Student Senate Chamber is inserted within the existing square skylit atrium at the second floor. The chamber sits detached in this larger volume, the tangible political heart within body of the existing structure. This interior political presence manifests itself on the exterior in the form of a new University Center courtyard for student gatherings. The portico both sheltered and opened areas for meeting and discussion at the new campus crossroads.
Structure
The columns of the existing Center, repeating the form of the building itself, are square. By contrast, the addition is structured by directional concrete piers. On the south side, these piers grain the campus passage through the new portico, from the residential quadrangle to the academic lawn. On the north side, the piers rotate 90 degrees to the north-south axis, graining that portion of the addition back into the existing building campus center.
Systems
A new system of mechanical "troffers" housing ductwork, lighting and other building systems extends throughout both the old and new structures. The insertion of this layer provides a systematic datum against which the building's formal and programmatic events are measured.
Existing Building
Many elements of the existing building as possible have been left as evidence of the original structure, including the appropriation of the existing steel frame, exterior brick walls and interior walls of concrete masonry. These existing interior walls are centered on structure while new interior walls, in contrast, are inserted as non-bearing screens out of plane with existing structure. The new interior enclosure system is independent of the structure and, through the use of continuous glass transoms, provides views across the ceiling which visually complete the horizontal datum of the troffers.
Vertical Enclosure/Cladding
All new exterior walls employ an open joint rain screen system of granite panels with poured in place concrete at the base. This new enclosure system is hung beyond the structure and, with the water penetration barrier at the outside face of the backup wall, reiterates the system of new wall insertion established on the interior while reinforcing the conceptual separation of structure and enclosure. The formal implications of this system are explored in the window/wall/frame relationships of this project. Unlike modernist cavity and membrane walls, the window and wall no longer need to be the inverse of each other (cavity) or coincident with each other (membrane). Rather, as is evident throughout the new structure, wall panels overlap windows, establishing a dialogue between transparency and opacity.
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