I’ve been to a talk by Rem Koolhaus and like most successful, famous architects, he seemed a bit insane- but brilliant. On my wish list is to see the CCTV building in Beijing- if that’s not a testament to his genius, I don’t know what is.
This Educatoriam building felt very similar to the McCormick Tribune Campus Center, on the IIT Chicago Main Campus (the grad school I went to is part of IIT, but not located on the main campus). The IIT version is a bit more futuristic and has the interesting integration of the nearby EL train station.
Back to this building though, I found was most struck by the number of unique staircases, as well as reminded of Rem’s holistic design approach whereby he considers all design aspects, including the typography used.
Though I enjoyed the layers of space created, I found that the layout also forced a single flow through the building, aka there was only one way to get from one layer to another. Perhaps when multiple classes are released at the same time, this solves a congestion issue, but in terms of exploration, I can’t say I liked the forced flow.
Thanks to my friends Shikhiu, Olivia and Katie for letting me drag them out to the University of Utrecht campus. Btw- there are VERY few cafe or restaurants on the campus so be sure to eat first!
Website: OMA’s building summary
Address: Leuvenlaan, Utrecht University, 3584 Utrecht, The Netherlands
ofallthespaces 