This project helps The University of Monterrey, UDEM achieve its ambitious plan to have a 100% pedestrian campus in the near coming future, at the same time that enriches student life, improves the community experience, and contributes to the creation of public spaces. As the main entrance of the University, it is designed as an extension of public space, it works as a link between city, campus, and people, and becomes the new face of the university that blurs the rigid limit that existed between city and university, between landscape and built campus. In this project, the individual is placed as the central actor of the design process, through a play of scale and a series of shared spaces the building promotes a closer relationship between individuals and architecture, and helps to cultivate a warm feeling of community and identity among students.
The building hosts student spaces, commercial areas, service offices, rooms for education and provides adequate parking designed aiming for a carless future and therefore being able to be use in many other possible ways. The site's topography and the variety of uses led to conceptualised the building as a conglomerate of rectangular volumes protruding from ground level, each having a specific function. The private areas are clustered at the project's base, and at upper levels are public areas. The building has an emblematic landscape that blends into the interior of the structure, is designed to have native vegetation and a remarkable versatility to fulfil the functions of a public square for inclusive social life. The inverse relationship is also enhanced by the structures that extend from the building interior to reach the exterior landscape. The goal of Estoa, the name given to the building by the community, is to create a refuge where students can feel welcome, a place where they can develop their academic activities, and enjoy social life through common space.
