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Institute of Technology Petronas
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Winner Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2007
The University of Technology Petronas' prototypical built configuration, consisting of an all-encompassing shaped canopy with functional boxes inserted underneath, is a contemporary reinterpretation of the classic metaphor for tropical architecture - an umbrella that offers protection from the sun and rain. It is a complex educational structure that links concept with expectation, its high-tech emblematic architecture appropriate for a large scientific university in a rapidly developing nation.
At the same time, the design responds both to the physical landscape and to the weather patterns of the Malay peninsula. A soaring, crescent-form roof supported by steel columns winds around the edge of the site, covering pedestrian routes and providing a defined, shaded zone for social interaction and circulation. To preserve the natural topography, the core academic buildings are wrapped around the base of a series of knolls, and viewed from a distance, the university's canopy elevation echoes the tree canopy of the densely forested site.
This is an exemplary use of a performance-based approach to architectural design that goes beyond the diagram. The design has been carried through to completion with meticulous detail, rigour and persistence, and marks a real collaboration between the two architectural practices, with an important transfer of knowledge, process and technology.
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| Architect |
Foster Norman |
| Country |
Malaysia |
| Region |
Perak |
| City |
Seri Iskandar |
| Start of the work |
1998 |
| End of the work |
2004 |
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