URBAN LIGHT BOX

The NB Haifa School of Design

Project idea

The project is hovering over the existing space without revealing the various functions and uses it contains to the outside world. The new building functions externally as a lighting element on an urban scale and internally as an integral part of the university campus. The design of the structure adopts or rejects existing values ​​completely - the placement and shape result from the existing situation, compared to the use of light and material that go to the other extreme.

Project description

The new building contains dynamic study spaces, a library, offices and display spaces. In addition, a new outdoor leisure space that utilizes the roof of the existing laboratory building and the space between the new and the existing array. All interior spaces of the building are surrounded by glass walls and exterior metal grid cladding
When in some areas it is possible to stay in the intermediate space between the building and the shell on external balconies and bridges.

Technical information

The structure is a lightweight construction structure, which utilizes a massive steel grid to allow the lightness and levitation of the array. The movement array that connects the existing structure with the new structure is made entirely of concrete and penetrates throughout the system so that it forms a constructive center. The use of steel column and beams grid allows freedom with regard to the placement of elements in space, as with the outer shell array removed from the central mass and the reference to floors as floating panels that do not have to be attached to walls and columns with the use of ties and thus create dynamism and variety of interior space.