On Monday I took a tour of the IIT campus, led by an architecture student. The campus is remarkable for its modern and contemporary architecture. Architect Mies Van Der Rohe fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and became the dean and master planner at IIT in 1938. In all, he designed 19 buildings for the campus; the most renowned is Crown Hall, a very elegant modern building-- the proportions, structural system and material palette make it a striking space. Crown Hall is the studio space for architecture students, and there are no permanent walls inside-- only movable dividers and lockers. The student leading my tour said that is was an excellent workspace because of the natural light and good acoustics. One of Mies' principles that is visible at Crown Hall is the legibility of the structure-- you can understand from looking at the building how it is constructed, and their are no decorative or non-functional elements (like brick facades are today). In this case, the building is actually "hanging" from the large metal members you see extending over the roof-- really a modern structural innovation at the time.
In recent decades IIT has updated its architectural legacy with competitions that drew some of the most innovative contemporary designers. The challenge was to make use of pieces of land adjacent to the noisy El line. Rem Koolhaas' design for the Campus Center is really amazing-- it is a bold, playful design that also seems highly functional (from what I could tell). He wrapped the El track in a huge concrete and metal tube to dampen the noise, and shaped the Student Center underneath it, following existing lines of movement on campus. The best word to describe this space is "dynamic," both inside and out:
Another interesting recent addition to the campus is a dorm by Helmut Jahn. Each room looks over a courtyard with birch trees, and the roof has a spectacular view of the downtown skyline (and "the Tube").
No comments:
Post a Comment