Malaysia's sustained growth in recent decades in large part to the development of a strong education sector, one that aims especially to contribute to advances in the fields of science and technology. In support of this ambition, the government invited the petroleum company Petronas to set up a private university that would nurture technically qualified, well-rounded graduates who could direct the development of key industries in Malaysia. Blending academic training with hands-on experience, the University of Technology Petronas is conceived as an environment that will encourage creativity and innovation, 'a place to learn and not a place to be thought.'
The project's significance lies in a number of aspects. First, its prototypical built configuration, consisting of an all-encompassing shaped canopy with functional boxes inserted underneath, is a contemporary reinterpretation of the classic metaphor for tropical architecture - an umbrella that offers protection from the sun and rain. Second, the building provides a defined shaded zone for social interaction and circulation under an overhead enclosure. This is a high-tech, emblematic architecture appropriate for a scientific university in rapidly developing nation. Third, the careful physical integration of a complex educational structure with the existing landscape is achieved in an ingenious way, by wrapping the built forms around the base of a series of knolls. And fourth, this is an exemplary use of a performance-based approach to architectural design that goes beyond the diagram. The design has been carried through to completion with meticulous detail, rigour and persistence. It sets new standards in the quality of construction without significant cost premiums. In aggregate, most found the design to be instructive, aesthetically satisfying and technologically novel.
(Courtesy of Aga Khan Foundation)
No comments:
Post a Comment