Located at Anant State University, the project was built 4 years ago and is currently used by 700 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of architecture, planning, and design. During the master planning process for the new Anant State University campus, it was quickly discovered that the existing academic buildings needed to be retrofitted.

Even though it was built not long ago, the classrooms in the building are all located in dark and narrow corridors with extremely poor lighting. Since the atrium is surrounded by designed classrooms, it looks particularly cold and bleak. The area where the models are placed also lacks sufficient foundation. equipment. The primary purpose of this project was to strategically transform the building into a 21st-century teaching and learning environment while maintaining access to facilities for faculty, staff, and students. The goal of the renovation was to enable the building to accommodate a variety of design studios, discussion rooms, new public learning spaces, galleries, maker spaces, and clay workshops, and to develop a central area with a strong social and public character.

During the initial development phase of the campus, the building will serve as the primary center for design education, adjacent to a new student residence (currently under construction) and new campus landscaping. The building will continue to serve its academic and administrative functions in the future.

Integrated Planning

The building renovation responds to the needs of staff and students and provides a flexible foundation for future change and growth. During the design process, concepts and details were developed based on research and input from students, faculty, staff, and leadership to ensure that the university’s goals and principles were reflected in the final transformation.

The design team worked closely with a core team representing the university throughout the entire process. To obtain input from different university departments and groups, we consulted with working groups and advisory committees. Outreach to stakeholders includes webinars, open houses, online demonstrations, simulations, and collaboration with groups representing management. Because students and faculty are still using the building during construction, it provides first-year students with a rare opportunity to observe how an ongoing project is designed, tested, and implemented, while also allowing upperclassmen to be involved in the design Discussions among the designers helped to refine the design of details and spatial fluidity.

The proposed scheme emphasizes the importance of going beyond traditional practices, aiming to create a low-cost yet high-impact renovation solution. This transformation can help the college comply with the best practices and trends of the 21st century in education, learning, and research.

Implementation Method

The building’s renovation took an unconventional and innovative approach, using low-cost means and sustainable strategies including:

• Given the local dry and hot climate, a sunshade design is adopted to introduce a breeze into the low-rise manufacturing space of the building to form cross ventilation. and incorporating plants and color to transform an unused and desolate courtyard into the social heart of the building.
• A simplified modular sunshade building system was developed that can be quickly constructed and assembled, using panels made from refurbished timber from an old local shipyard, creating a friendly and inviting space.
• Strategic color placement makes the space vibrant and lively while helping to establish local character and identity.
• Through detailed structural analysis of the building, large areas of blank walls were cleverly removed, solving the previous problems of space being cut by walls, students being blocked by walls, and poor accessibility.
• Use simple physical models to understand how teachers and students use buildings and test some practical solutions for building retrofits.
• Try bringing daylight into studios, maker centers, and clay workshops.
• Use architecture as a real-time laboratory for exploring and prototyping solutions. The entire project took nine months to implement and included multiple construction iterations.

Achievements

The teaching system of Anant State University urgently needs to be flexible and adaptable to the evolving teaching needs. The renovation plan is an integration of space module tools that integrate all aspects of education, learning, and student life. The modules are designed to both fit within existing buildings on campus and form spaces that form key structural elements of new buildings. For existing design schools, it is a test case for improving the development of future application mechanisms.

After the transformation was completed, the university saw a significant increase in faculty recruitment and student admissions, not only developing new subject programs but also forming a vibrant and vibrant cultural atmosphere. With the development of a new maker center and ceramics workshop, students have access to a range of cutting-edge testing and prototyping equipment, allowing them to take their design ideas a step further and promoting a culture of learning through making. What was once a quiet, isolated building is now an engaging place that is visible, accessible, and filled with a variety of student activities.

Sustainable measures include maximizing natural ventilation and daylight, using recycled materials, removing all plastics, and using solar-integrated designs.

Campus Character And Sense Of Place

The existing building surrounds a large atrium that is unprotected and rarely used. The renovation plan uses a large number of translucent shading structures in the atrium, moves the cafe to the atrium, and installs an outdoor deck made of refurbished wooden boards, plants, and seats, transforming this space into a vibrant and suitable place for various activities (dining), exhibition, leisure, festival celebrations, installation art, etc.) activity center. The new courtyard reflects the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the School of Design, a hallmark of Anant University.

Space Utilization

At the beginning of the design, the team did a lot of research to understand how the building would be used, space utilization, and efficiency. These studies show that more than 35% of building space is rarely used or difficult to access. By strategically placing fixed and movable furniture, opening up walls to introduce light, and using color, the plan transforms previously neglected areas into collision spaces (collision spaces, new conference rooms that break the tradition, open spaces (Relaxing environment and comfortable equipment can better stimulate inspiration and communication) and student lounge, which can be used for informal student interaction, project assignments, teamwork, leisure, and display space.

Fulfill The Purpose Of The Organization

A fundamental tenet of design education at Anant State University is to require each student to learn through design testing and prototyping practice. An important requirement for the renovation plan was to include a new maker space and space for displaying models. The design transforms neglected and unused courtyards and underutilized storage spaces into cutting-edge maker centers and clay workshops, providing ample space for teachers and students to teach, create, and experiment in a safe and clean environment. The Maker Center’s modular system of steel trusses and long barrel vaults of wire mesh cement handmade in the ceramics workshop bring northern light into the interior.

Academic Program Requirements

Anant National University was the first school in India to introduce a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to design teaching. This breaks the traditional siled teaching and cultivates each student into a “problem solver – a revolutionary thinker oriented to solving problems, and encourages them to design their learning route.” The key to this teaching process is to let students be exposed to and immersed in different forms of design and art genres. The renovation scheme realizes the mission of Anant State University by introducing a series of indoor and outdoor spaces that can host a variety of hands-on learning experiences, such as a ceramics workshop where clay modeling, bronze casting, etc. are located in a once-neglected space. and pottery making.