Abedian School of Architecture / CRAB Studio Architects: CRAB Studio Location: Queensland, Australia Design Team: Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, Mark Bagguley, Jenna Al-Ali, Ting-Na Chen, Lorene Faure, Yang Yu, Tim Culverhouse General Contractor: ADCO, Gold Coast Structural: Arup, Brisbane Area: 2500.0 sqm Year: 2013 From the architect. The Abedian School of Architecture is located on the campus designed in the 1980s by Arata Isozaki. It forms part of the Faculty of Architecture and Sustainable Design. Winning the competition in January 2011, CRAB was awarded the contract and the building was completed in 2013. Peter Cook’s and Gavin Robotham’s long experience as teachers of architecture and their regular working knowledge of several including the Bartlett, AA, Harvard, SCI-ARC, Columbia, Frankfurt and UCLA enabled them to incorporate a response to many anecdotal criteria as well as constructional and climatic objectives. The building is a long, airy loft on two to three levels articulated by a series of ‘scoops’: defining structure-enclosures that can be used for casual meetings and ‘crit’ sessions. These line the central street that gently rises up the hilltop site. As befits a hot and sometimes sticky climate, the building is airy and folds over upon itself in a series of fan-like roofs and slits with advantage is taken of the east-west axis to clarify a very climate-controlled development of the building envelope that includes sunshade ‘eyebrows’ on the sundrenched north side. The Abedian School of Architecture is CRAB’S second University building. As with their other work, the sociology and sense of ‘theatre’, of small, intimate groups within
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Abedian School of Architecture / CRAB Studio
Architects: CRAB StudioLocation: Queensland, AustraliaDesign Team: Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, Mark Bagguley, Jenna Al-Ali, Ting-Na Chen, Lorene Faure, Yang Yu, Tim CulverhouseGeneral Contractor: ADCO, Gold CoastStructural: Arup, BrisbaneArea: 2500.0 sqmYear: 2013
From the architect. The Abedian School of Architecture is located on the campus designed in the 1980s by Arata Isozaki. It forms part of the Faculty of Architecture and Sustainable Design. Winning the competition in January 2011, CRAB was awarded the contract and the building was completed in 2013.
Peter Cook’s and Gavin Robotham’s long experience as teachers of architecture and their regular working knowledge of several including the Bartlett, AA, Harvard, SCI-ARC, Columbia, Frankfurt and UCLA enabled them to incorporate a response to many anecdotal criteria as well as constructional and climatic objectives.
The building is a long, airy loft on two to three levels articulated by a series of ‘scoops’: defining structure-enclosures that can be used for casual meetings and ‘crit’ sessions. These line the central street that gently rises up the hilltop site. As befits a hot and sometimes sticky climate, the building is airy and folds over upon itself in a series of fan-like roofs and slits with advantage is taken of the east-west axis to clarify a very climate-controlled development of the building envelope that includes sunshade ‘eyebrows’ on the sundrenched north side.
The Abedian School of Architecture is CRAB’S second University building. As with their other work, the sociology and sense of ‘theatre’, of small, intimate groups within institutions, the importance of the non-curricula moments – and a ‘sense of theatre’ – all run through the project which is taken right through to their design of its colourful and highly flexible furniture.
From the architect. Context: Celebrating its 175th birthday in 2013, Manchester School of Art is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the UK. The school was established in the 19th Century to help keep the region competitive in an international market and support regional industry in a wider marketplace.
Now a faculty of Manchester Metropolitan University this remains an important objective for the Art school and a key part of the brief was to help the school bridge the gap between education and professional life.
The new building celebrates the inter relation of the various art & design disciplines and encourages 21st century students to work alongside each other and enjoy the crossover rather than concentrating always on the differences. With a huge front window, it is also a building that is proud of its product and shows the work to everyone who passes by.
Now one of the leading Art & Design courses in the country, the School has around 3500 FTE students across its various disciplines. Housed within a range of late Victorian and post-war buildings, the School forms the southern edge of All Saints’ Park, a green square at the heart of the city centre campus. The Art School Extension consists of an 8600m2 new building of studios, workshops and a gallery; and a 9000m2 refurbishment of a 1960s Arts tower and plinth.
Concept: FCB’s design of the Manchester School of Art has provided an engaging and lively environment in which to work and study and helped re-assert both the art school and the university’s profile on the national stage. The Dean of the School, Professor David Crow, describes the scheme as “a hugely exciting arena where anything is possible and everything is relevant.”
The working heart of the building comprises open studios, workshops and teaching spaces (known as the Design Shed.) A second element is a seven storey ‘Vertical Gallery’. This is the linking piece between the existing 1960s arts tower (known as the Chatham Building) and the new studio building. This vertical gallery provides a showcase space for the output of the School and acts as a shop window to the school itself.
