Multi-functional Campus

Delft architects of Mecanoo know a lot of university buildings: In Utrecht they have designed the faculty of economics and management, and the TU Delft was their customer in realizing the highly regarded library with its ascending grass roof. Just recently, the team has won the competition for the new campus of the National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) in Moscow, which is among the leading technical academies in Russia.

The project, divided into two construction stages, integrates seven institute buildings, a number of research facilities, apartments for up to 10,000 students and 3,000 employees, a library, a congress center and a sports park, all spread across an area of 100 hectares. As additional functions, hotels, cafés, a movie theater, a number of stores and an underground  car park are intended to be built. The overall floor area of the various buildings is destined to be around 400,000 square meters.

Welcome to the new City

Location of the new campus is the just recently opened quarter of “A101” South of Moscow. Based on a masterplan by Dutch bureau Maxwan, a totally new quarter with about 120,000 dwelling units for up to 300,000 inhabitants is supposed to be built until 2020; until then, the new MISiS location is scheduled to be completed as well. In order to be able to realize the wishes made by the university and to turn the location into a center point and a catalyst of the new quarter at the same time, Mecanoo have designed a campus park with a high tree density and an artificial lake, all accessible by the public. Embedded in this green environment, two central axes are intended to make the various functions accessible. Center point will be the nine-story library and the horizontally developed students’ center, which are supposed to together form an inviting gate situation by the lake.

  
Maximum Flexibility   

In order to be able to respond to changing student numbers or new communication and media technologies anytime, all buildings are set up in a flexible manner. Additional sustainability is planned to be achieved through geothermal heat, rain water as well as natural lighting and ventilation. The whole area is also designed to be free of cars. So far, so good – let the machines in. Since president Medvedev himself wants the project realization to start at the beginning of December at the latest.