The “CHUCC” (pronounced “chuck,” no one can remember exactly what the acronym stands for, something about creative and crossroads?), is a student-lead initiative to create a University Commons to connect students and faculty across the university. The charge is to design a campus landmark with lasting architectural qualities to serve as the intellectual crossroads of the campus.
There was a broad consensus in the university community that the commons needed to be near the Drill Field and Newman Library. A major re-organization of the campus will be undertaken, and three buildings built in the ‘60s (Graduate Life Building 1965-8; the additions to Squires in 1967-70, ’91; and the University Bookstore, 1975) taken down. The old Faculty Center (1935) is to be preserved. Although there was a heated discussion about the sustainability of demolishing these three buildings, at fifty years their energy footprints and inefficiencies were deamed to be outweighed by the benefits to the campus of re-vitalizing and reenvisioning, “re-inventing” the University. The erasure of the early ‘70’s (actually 1965 to 1991) is a prompt to reconsider the campus threshold.
The “CHUCC” is to occupy only a portion of the Newman Quad (bounded by Alumni Mall, Otey Street, Edgewood Drive and the Drill Field). The site will include provisions for outdoor gathering spaces and at least one other building. The B-o-V, in granting approval, set two requirements: 1). The total square footage of the project shall not exceed 100,000 sf; 2) the ratio of building footprint to designed outdoor spaces is to be 3 to 5.
This mixing-chamber for the entire Virginia Tech community --- students and faculty, colleges and departments, graduates and undergraduates, researchers and makers, will serve as a hub in the social, intellectual and creative life of the university. This is not a replacement building for Squires, as two or three additional student centers are planned across the expanding campus. Facilities dedicated to graduate students will be incorporated in “The Green,” a new residential quad to be built at Otey and Washington with housing for graduate students, visiting faculty and artists, international exchange students, honor students and the Gobbler Stewardship Council (a club piloting a radical sustainable lifestyle). The on-campus University Book Store had been closed since Fall of 2016, due to 70% of its sales shifting to e-books and online delivery.
The program for the ‘CHUCC” came about following a series of workshops, forums and exhibits held across the University. The SGA decided to present it to the architects (you), in “raw” form. They are excited about your selection for the project and want to enable you to leverage your insights and experience to create a new typology for the University of the Future. Your initial tasks will include master planning of the site and proposing a conceptual approach to the building.
The project occupies the North East Quad of Virginia Tech (bounded by Alumni Mall, Otey Street, Edgewood Drive and the Drill Field) in front of College Avenue and adjacent to Newman Library (constructed in 1955).
Three existing buildings, Donaldson Brown Graduate Life Center Building 1965-8, the additions to Squires in 1967-70,’9, and the University Bookstore, 1975, are scheduled to be demolished due to their energy inefficiency.
Network
The proposed design is to correspond to the site contexts and connect with the existing networks. Majors streets such as Main Street runs parallel to the site and College Avenue marks the entrance.
A series of bus stations provided by Blacksburg Transit are located within vicinity to the project.
Axis
Current Virginia Tech campus is organized through two axes, one that is created by the Drill Field, Chapel and Alumni mall which divides the campus into academic and residential areas. The propose site will create another axis that runs parallel to main street off from Newman library to create another axis that marks the divide between the town and the university
Stroubles Creek
An under water stream runs directly through the site approximately 20 feet under ground. Building structure and foundation will be greatly affected.
According to Collegiate Time, the Drill Field is sinking at a considerable rate, this opens up an opportunity to possibly daylight the Stroubles Creek to embrace this natural phenomenon and center activities on campus along the creek. Making the site a vital place that would reciprocate the Drill Field for future development.
Contour
There are many drastic changes in elevationwithin Blacksburg. The project site for instance, has a total elevation change of 20 feetfrom College Avenue to Edgewood Drive
Column Field
As one move across the Drill Field, he/ she gets distracted and disoriented by the activities happening around him/ her. The CHUCC is a translation and exaggeration of such phenomenon by creating a field of homogenous columns to disorient people passing by and to encourage them to explore many different activities within the field of columns
Column grid
A grid system was developed to setup a frame work for the structure and the spatial order. The column grid helps to inform spatial dimensions not only for the ground level but also for the volumes on top where the programs will later be fitted. Also future developments can be implemented by expansion of the column- mass system.
Hyperstyle Hall
Precedents of the column field can be found within structures that stood thousands years ago. The Greek temples used monumental columns not only for structural reasons but also to create a condition of geometrical harmony and dignity. The Muslim Mosques also utilized the hyper style halls for their structural and visual attributions.
Modular system
In response to the incorporation of a wide range of programs into the building design, a system of spatial order was much needed. One solution was to treat each program space as a distinct volume and place them into the grid system created by the columns. Spatial order is then created by, rotating, shifting, lifting and subtracting the volumes to create a series of dynamic spaces that changes according to the program use.
Facade precedence
The exterior of each pavilion will be made of stacked blocks of cast concrete, individually poured to measure six feet long, a foot high and a foot deep. This is to put the massive building in contrast with the organic nature, as well as removing personality of the building to set an hierarchy of spatial condition
Program
The approach to fulfill programs in the building came from the initial diagram of pulling people through the middle atrium space. This is done by placing rooms for functions on the opposite side of the people who generally will use those functions, thus making them walk through the middle of the building.
STEAM labs (“makerspaces”)
A high-bay large enough to 3-D print the House of the Future
(including a hoist and rigging)
A climbing wall
Rita Levi-Montalcini Research Center: four state-of-the-art
STEM labs that can be connected. An open-university wide
competition will be held every 3 years, with the winning projects
granted a three-year residency; each 10th year they will be
renovated to reflect new technologies and requirements.
Loading Dock (direct access to the High-bay hoist, delivery
service and recycling) accessible from Edgewood Drive.
A 5000 square foot golden ratio room without columns
A Recording Studio
The “Spindle” a student run supply store (a very geeky hardware
and building supply store with a juice bar)
The Hokie Stone: A Viennese Coffee House (an all-night coffee
house with fancy cakes, newspapers on wooden paddles, and
several late-night food-truck parking places).
Engaging places to hold meetings, study groups, teleconference,
quartet practices, etc.
10 @ 8 persons with good acoustic isolation
5 @ 16 persons with reconfigurable furnishings
3 @ 30 person classroom
2 @ 100 person assembly room, combinable to 200
A Council Room – for student and faculty government and
committee meetings
Creative Arts and Architecture Minors Studios
The Innovation Lab (will move from Torgeson)
A Demonstration Kitchen
“Varied indoor and outdoor spaces providing appropriate
lighting, acoustics, stage surfaces and perches for forums,
activities, exhibits and performances.”
“A transit hub, whether you are arriving on campus, waiting
for your next class, waiting for Godot… A place where paths
cross – you might meet a faculty colleague, your friends, a
visiting nobel-prize winning economist. A social and intellectual
gateway… “ “Serve as a link between ‘town and gown’
(commerce and academics)”
“A laboratory for learning, living, and demonstrating a
sustainable future.” “A place of inventive student-initiated
experimentation, catalyzing faculty mentorship and
collaboration.”
“..transparency, perceptual and operational connections to the
ecological and intellectual environment of the campus.”
“A high performance building (water management, strategies
to allow and filter daylighting and fresh air, reduce heat gain &
energy consumption, etc.)”
Siting
The building is purposely situated on many columns to provide new and unusual spaces underneath.
These spaces will give a wanderer new opportunities to run into new exciting events and gatherings.
Structure
The structure of the project is mainly composed of three elements: Columns, Beams, and floor slabs. Partition walls are added to create enclosure and the envelope
Solar heat gain
The solar analysis showed the atrium needed shade from the sun. A double facade system with fritted glass was designed to cope with shading and solar heat gain.
Fritted Glass Component
This system is composed of two striped glass walls supported by spider clips. The walls create a three feet wide cavity for the ease of future maintenance. Due to the shifting of sun angle, the glazed stripes on the glass panels are three inches apart to create a considerable amount of shading whilst allowing auditorium occupants to observe the activities in the atrium. The cavity utilizes the stack effect to creates a high pressure chamber which draws heat up to the ventilation system.
Wind Analysis
By looking at the wind directions that are common throughout the year, much air comes from the north west direction. To put this best into use,two large air handling units placed in coordinate with the wind direction are employed to efficiently ventilated the atrium. The units are also capable of drawing hazardous smoke out of the atrium when a fire breaks out.
Air Circulation
The wind rose also revealed a great way to ventilate the auditorium. The wind blowing North west could ventilate the large atrium and hot air would be sucked out by the Bernoulli effect.
Water Cooling
Due to the atrium gaining a lot of light and heat in the summer, water was used along with HVAC system as a thermal mass that would help cool the space. The constant flowing creek water was designed to bring heat away during the summer. In the winter it would be closed so as to retain heat.
GALLARY
