SADAR + VUGA, the architectural practice co-founded by Boštjan Vuga, who teaches ‘Porous! Public!’ (DIP 5), have completed two buildings at University HOGENT, a new faculty of social sciences building and a sports hall extension at the Schoonmeersen campus in Ghent, Belgium. They designed the projects after winning an invited design competition in 2012, the Vlaams Bauwmeester Open Call 21.

Vuga commented that: ‘The sports hall takes the role of northern gates to the campus and connects the campus to the city with its direct relation to the existing sports hall and an added volume with its concave-convex reflective façade, opening up on the city side. The transparent ground floor enables the projection of the activities happening inside of the building to the city context.’

‘The social sciences building is innovative in the design of internal communication and public spaces, where long and enclosed halls have been replaced by common spaces with different heights and round vertical atriums in order to ensure shared space for informal work, exhibition, studies or socializing. From all the classrooms, which enclose the common space, evacuation routes lead to outer walkways. They are altogether wrapped in a system of fiberglass lamellar brisoles that represent the permeable shading membrane of the building, giving it a dematerialized appearance.’

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