SoftRigid

Proposal for the Northern Ontario School of Architecture

Architecture is a field of studying space through questioning current society. Many architects design and study from buildings, infrastructure, urban planning to government policy. This distinguishes architecture form other design fields. These spatial designers synthesize sociological issues in architectural way.
Education in architecture school is for training students how to deal with social issues as well as how to design building. Either professor or student as a professional gives each other interactive lesson. By chemical action in the group of professors and students, architecture school should be the most intense place in architecture field. And the core of architecture school is the design studio. Architecture school plays an important role as intersection between society and academy. In Advance, architecture school stimulates society and is stimulated by it.
The site for the Northern Ontario School of Architecture (NOSOA) is located at the corner of Elm Street and Durham Street. This site is the center of the City of Greater Sudbury and surrounded by many local facilities. It is easy to impact on community and to be impacted by it. New building for NOSOA is designed considering influx and outflow between community and studio. Overall building is floating from the ground and covered by fluid skin on the wall and ceiling. The flat public zone is easy for visitors and students to draw in and the skin gives visitors and students visual connection and makes them perceive the space continuous. The continuous space connects to the main atrium which is core of the circulation and design studios. This carved-shape core acts as a medium between out-community and indoor-school in visual and programmatic way. While accepting existing fabrics of Northern Ontario, new school will provide a new layer of fabric.