PARTENARIS – New Center for the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons
Wonderful repetition – after the University of Applied Sciences Center Bahnhof Nord in St. Gallen (2013) and the University of Applied Sciences Sihlhof in Zürich (2003), the structural engineers of Lüchinger+Meyer, alongside Giuliani Hönger Architects, are once again able to tackle the realization of a spacious university building. The “PARTENARIS” design emerged as the winning project from the competition for a new UAS Grisons Center in Chur. With the new building, the canton of Graubünden is reacting to the increase in the number of students and the volume of research in recent years. At the Pulvermühle site, contemporary spatial infrastructures are to be created for modern, future-oriented university operations by 2028.
The “PARTENARIS” project demonstrates in many ways how consistently the planning team around Giuliani Hönger Architects adapts itself to the given challenge. The project’s guiding idea, of integrally and equally treating the four keystones architecture, main structure, building technology and sustainability was persistently pursued in intensive interdisciplinary cooperation. The jury particularly emphasized this successful aspect of the submission. The deliberate partnerships that the new buildings enter with the existing buildings, as well as the connecting passerelle were also highlighted.
Construction design and choice of materials pursue the idea of a hybrid application based on the principle of the most efficient and sustainable material for each area of application. The structure concept of the four story U-shaped new building is based on a basic floor grid of 5.80 meters in the longitudinal direction and 10.90 – 7.70 – 10.90 meters in the transverse direction, which allows a good flexibility of use. From the ground floor upwards, the supporting structure is built as a sustainable and relatively light skeleton structure made of a wood-concrete composite. The main girders are stretched across the building, while the ceiling fields in wood-concrete composite construction with wooden ribs transfer the loads uniaxially in the longitudinal direction. Slender, prefabricated, prestressed concrete main girders, which rest on hardwood supports, are spanned in transverse direction.
In the north-west wing, extensive column-free rooms are to be realized on the ground floor, which allow for a flexible use. Here, three-story space-containing resolved truss support systems with spans of around 40 meters are used.
All 13 projects in the competition can be viewed as part of a public exhibition from October 25th to November the 5 th in the foyer of the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons at Pulvermühlestrasse 57 in Chur. Detailed information about the exhibition can be found on the website of the UAS Grisons.
(Visualisations: maaars)
