The site for an extension of Petra Christian University is located east of the existing campus. The east-west elongated trapezoidal site measures approximately 200 meters long and 45 meters on its shortest side. This site will connect the existing campus on the west and a planned student dormitory on the east. The new project will house four faculties, a laboratory centre and a grand auditorium.
The complex programmatic demands render the project to be designed as multiple masses. Three masses rise above a three-storey podium containing parking and the lab centre that requires ground access. The 3,000-seat auditorium that cantilevers past the podium becomes the gateway for the planned southern campus entrance and for the project as it hovers above the grand stairway. A sky garden sits on top of the auditorium, providing open space and serving as a thermal barrier for the space below. The other two buildings (one housing the Faculty of Arts; the other the Faculties of Communication, Education, and Literature as well as the Petra Energy Park on the rooftop) are conceived as thin elongated buildings orientated east-west to maximize daylight and natural cross ventilation. Circulation is put on the 'inside face' of each building, and rooms on the 'outside face'. These two buildings seemingly 'slip' past each other while creating a gap in the middle to channel wind towards the centre of the project, to be harnessed in each of the rooms.
The two slender buildings shade themselves by leaning towards the location of the sun during the two solstices, and by doing so reducing solar gain while still maintaining daylight and views. The leaning buildings also allow greater light penetration into the plaza level underneath. Concrete will be the main structural material, except for the auditorium, which will be built out of steel. Externally, the facade is mainly painted precast panels to minimize construction waste. Perforated metal panels are used in some areas where floor-to-ceiling glazing is desired.
The space between the podium and the 'floating' masses becomes a linear public space that provides a pedestrian connection from the existing campus to the planned dormitory, responding to the challenges posed by the site, and continuing the typology
of the existing campus—due to its limited urban location most of its public space occurs underneath buildings that are lifted up on columns. The elevated 'carpet' becomes an outdoor oasis amidst the bustling surrounding and offers pedestrians a refreshing experience with a bookshop, a restaurant, a café, an open-air theatre, and landscape features such as reflecting ponds, trees, and green 'hills' flanking both sides of the space. The plaza can be used for exhibitions and also serves as a pre-function space for auditorium events, such as graduation. Some of the facilities here will be opened to the public. The fine arts lab, for example, will hold several classes over the year, open to the community at large. The Petra Energy Park, a research centre in renewable energy, will be opened to students and researchers from other universities, as well as professionals. High school student competitions in various fields are held several times in the year.
The development holds two faculties whose students tend to face stressful academic demands. Thus, the architecture departs from a sterile educational building, ubiquitous in Indonesia. For many students, the campus is their second home, and thus for this project, the formality of university education is balanced by the spontaneity of student life and experience. As a result, the inclusion of lifestyle-oriented programmers such as open space, restaurant, and so forth, nourishes the students' academic life. The project strives to create a sense of place, one that will leave a pleasant memory for the students even long after they graduate, so that they will always remember the place where their journeys start.
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