The UNC Virtual Campus building arose from the premise of creating a new educational reference for the University Community in commemoration of the centenary of its University Reform. It is destined to become a contemporary educational and cultural support whose aim is to offer and develop educational programmes in a virtual communication environment.
Project name: UNC Virtual Campus
Company name: Daniel Huespe / Ignacio José Imwinkelried (Deriva Taller de Arquitectura)
Project location: Ciudad Universitaria, Córdoba, Argentina
Completion Year: 2018
Other participants:
Arq. Guillermo Mir, Arq. Jesica Grötter (associate architects)
Ing. Silvina Prados (engineer consultant)
Arq. Paula Molina (air conditioning consultant)
Arq. Matías Dinardi (bioclimatic consultant)
Arq. Florencia Kossman , Arq. Franco Mina, Arq. Walter López (collaborators)
Photo credits: Deriva Taller de Arquitectura
Since its urban implantation, it is a singular object in the entrance of the UNC Campus. The volume emerges above the existing vegetation, standing out in the landscape, without interrupting the continuity of the park. The ground floor is free, permeable to the landscape and recreational activities, generating a flexible and appropriate social interaction area. The proposed ramp offers a fluid continuity between the public space, the ground floor, and the first level of the building, where the programme of the audiovisual rooms is located, enabling a direct relationship between the building and the community.
The program of uses of the building is composed of an entrance hall, audiovisual rooms, the offices of the Virtual Campus, the Pro-Secretariat of Informatics, and the Microscopy Center of Cordoba. In relation to these functions, one of the premises of the project as a whole was a simple, flexible spatial proposal, adaptable to the changing dynamics of technologies, and to the new logics of work and education of the contemporary.
The building is presented in an ambiguous condition, between the material and immaterial, an unavoidable characteristic of our contemporary world, its exterior image during the day is manifested in a white, solid cube, which adopts different tonalities according to the sunlight and at night, becomes permeable and translucent. The technological decisions are coherent between the conceptualization of the building and the premises of environmental sustainability, which is why we worked with local technologies and materials, such as exposed concrete as a load-bearing structure and a structure and metal mesh as an external envelope, generating an austere language without artifice.
The habitable thickness of the façade allows for intermediate expansion space for users, technical maintenance space, and a climate control space to improve the efficiency of the building (the continuous circulation of natural ventilation in the façade and reduction of the impact of solar radiation on the interiors). At the same time, the metallic skin on the exterior side manifests itself as a supporting canvas for projections and interactive mapping, creating a building that generates public events, a new way of thinking, and inhabiting architecture with physical and virtual scenarios that coexist in the built space.
Deriva Taller de Arquitectura
Daniel Huespe and Ignacio José Imwinkelried have been working together since 2015 as associate architects. His studio is dedicated to developing projects ranging from the architectural scale to the urban scale.
Daniel Homero Huespe. Born in Córdoba in 1981. Graduate from Faculty of Architecture and Urbanismo of Córdoba. Argentina. Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Córdoba (FAUD-UNC) from 2011. Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Córdoba (FAUCC)
Workshop Coordinator of the Seminar Territories in movement, Landscapes, Architectures, and Infrastructures. FAUD-UNC. Workshop Coordinator of the International seminar “Project Experiences” FAUD-UNC. He has participated as a jury of national architecture competitions, appointed by the Architects Association of Córdoba.
He has obtained important prizes in different national architectural competitions, standing out the First Prize of the National Ideas Competition for the building of the Virtual Campus of the UNC (2017)
Ignacio José Imwinkelried. Born in Rafaela, Argentina, on the 17 th of the match. Graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Córdoba (FAUD-UNC) in 2005. Master’s degree in Design of Innovative Processes from de Catholic University of Córdoba (FA-UCC). Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Córdoba (FAUD-UNC) from 2014. Assistant Professor at Faculty of Architecture (FA-UCC) from 2012. Career Coordinator of Introductory course at the Faculty of Architecture of Córdoba (FAUD-UNC) in 2015.
Coordinator of different national and international workshops, including “Territories in movement: Landscapes, architectures and infrastructures” (FAUD-UNC 2012) and “Project Experiences” (FAUD-UNC 2014) Member of different research teams.
He has obtained important prizes in different national architectural competitions, standing out the First Prize of the National Ideas Competition for the building of the Virtual Campus of the UNC (2017)
