2013 Stéphanie SolheidStéphanie Solheid - The university in the city of Liège
The constantly evolving presence of the University in the city of Liege requires a programmatic and structural reflection. Different academic locations are connected by the flow of students. The aim is to integrate new functions and to create public living spaces inside some interiors urban blocks to provide urban breathing places. The block of the Aquarium, located between Pitteurs Street and Van Beneden Quay is a place of great potential. It has a large shapeless and intricate interior space. It knew constant transformations. The challenge was to design a city park open to students and residents by purging added architectural files, modifying building relationships to the space, reorganizing the landscape and creating significant public entrances.
Pitteurs Street is strongly marked by two existing university buildings, dating from the early twentieth century. The third building, subject of the project, completes the rhythm and draws its architectural writing from a typological reading of the existing architectures : rhythm of facades, clearness of flows, entrance marking... The program is defined according to general programmatic deficiencies of the University. The main function is the library of History of Science. The aim is to provide reading spaces diversified by their sizes and scales. Users can therefore be isolated or work in community in areas defined for this purpose. Preservation of books requires a mastery of direct natural light. This is why the building is primarily lit by zenithal light and punctually in façade. Some functions such as classrooms, lecture halls, offices, cafeteria, library and computer room opens generously on the public spaces and characterize the expression of the building.

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