Rising student numbers in all faculties at TU Delft exceeded the capacity of the leading Dutch university. To meet the need for more educational space in the long term, UN Studio developed the Echo concept, which not only meets the highest technical standards, but also offers a high degree of spatial flexibility.
Rising student numbers in all faculties at TU Delft exceeded the capacity of the leading Dutch university. To meet the need for more educational space in the long term, UN Studio developed the Echo concept, which not only meets the highest technical standards, but also offers a high degree of spatial flexibility.
From the start of planning in 2017 to completion in 2022, UNStudio worked closely with civil engineers and construction cost consultants. The result was a pioneering design for the cross-faculty building. Echo combines different teaching methods and types of education in a building that also produces more energy than it consumes. In keeping with the contemporary culture of “Everything Anywhere”, physical movement is also encouraged and spaces in between are given great importance. Echo offers space for unstructured time and becomes a platform for reflection, inspiration and communication.
The 8844 square meter building offers space for around 1,700 students. These are divided into lecture halls, classrooms and study rooms of various sizes. These rooms all have one thing in common: the layout can be changed in a matter of minutes. For example, it only takes 15 minutes to divide the largest lecture hall on the first floor, where 700 people can listen to a lecture, into three separate rooms. The offices on the second floor also have a modular design, meaning that they could even be functionally converted into an additional lecture hall if required. At present, the focus of Echo’s various rooms is on medium-sized and large classrooms for 150 to 700 people. The building can respond to future user requirements at short notice.
The design focuses not only on the adaptability of the building to the needs of the respective departments, but also on the well-being of the users. The latter increases through movement – and the building promotes this. Even on the first floor, Echo is an active campus. This is because the building does not simply connect with the public space, it defines it. The adjacent square continues into the transparent first floor of the building and connects with the street opposite. Echo’s first floor thus becomes a covered public square, a public connection. A centrally positioned staircase provides access to the entire building and not only facilitates an overview, but also contributes to the health of students, researchers and teaching staff.
Health-promoting elements such as the central staircase are a recurring feature in Echo. The transparent design maximizes the influence of daylight inside, which not only has a positive effect on (mental) health but also reduces the need for artificial lighting. It also creates a visual connection from Echo to the campus and the surrounding nature, avoiding an ‘institutional’ experience for users. A combination of solar shading and the low solar penetration factor of the glass counteracts overheating of Echo. In addition, the deep horizontal aluminum awnings keep out excess solar heat. Climbing plants growing between them form a subtle green façade and filter the daylight.
Clean air is another element of the health-promoting building design. This is ensured by a cavity system in the floor. Fresh air is therefore distributed into the rooms from the floor rather than from above, which prevents circulation in the room. The ventilation openings for this system are laid in a computer floor installation so that they can be easily adapted if the layout of the rooms changes.
UNStudio not only developed a building with a positive effect on the users, but also paid attention to the impact of Echo on the environment. The flexible use is made possible by a column construction that uses large grid dimensions and columns running along the edge of the building to create open spaces with large spans. The materials used in the construction focused, among other things, on the principles of the circular economy. Standard sizes were chosen for the steel girders so that they can be dismantled and reused at the end of the building’s service life. The cavity floor, for example, was also selected according to similar criteria. The furniture in the building is 90 percent recycled.
Echo is TU Delft’s most sustainable building and contributes significantly to the university’s ambition to operate a fully sustainable campus by 2030. 1,200 solar panels, smart installations, good insulation and a heat and cold storage system ensure that Echo can supply more energy than it needs for its daily operations. The user-related energy generated from the electricity used for laptops, lighting and catering is also included in the energy consumption.
On the one hand, Echo seems like a utopian experiment, as not every university will be able to support such a concept financially. On the other hand, the impact of this building on large parts of the everyday lives of students and teaching staff, on their physical, mental and social health, should not be underestimated. Buildings like Echo therefore act as pioneers, providing empirical values and opening up new paths in interdisciplinary planning – in terms of social, economic and ecological sustainability.
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An example of this: Together with Nihon Sekkei, UNStudio designed the Shanghai Jiuguang Center , the largest shopping center in northern Shanghai.
