LMN Architects and Hathaway Dinwiddie have been selected to design the Classroom and Office Building project worth $46m at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
The design of the 70,000ft2 building is composed of a two-story elliptically shaped pavilion housing lecture halls; a three-storey classroom wing surrounded by a continuous student mixing hall and a bridge that will be designed similar to central vertical circulation and gathering space linking the functions of the two primary structures.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Two floors of the building will feature day-lit classrooms and circulation areas, while the third level will house student offices and computer labs.
The exterior sunshade latticework allows percolation of natural light to the mixing zone's circulation and collaboration spaces.
The campus can be accessed by large plazas on its two sides with a series of community spaces offering views of Aldrich Park and the broader campus landscape.
The elliptically shaped pavilion will anchor the entry plazas as well as house two multi-use lecture halls with 400 and 250 seats respectively.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataLMN Architects partner and project designer John Chau said: "By assembling programme areas into distinct building components and then pulling those components apart, we were able to break down the scale of the buildings and create opportunities for social interaction in those interstitial spaces."
The halls feature double-tier seating configuration to enable students work in sub-groups while preserving lecture and case-study functionality.
An exterior loggia will be situated adjoining the pavilion to connect to the pedestrian scale of the plaza, which will feature perimeter seating clusters and an open-air stairway linking to the upper-level walkway.
Image: Aerial view of Classroom and Office Building. Photo: courtesy of LMN Architects.
