Located in the East Region of Surabaya, the WM Plenary Hall's brief was simple: to create a building that caters for the annual graduation. Rather than simply designing a building that accommodates 2 1.500 students, we began asking ourselves, what other values can we add to make this building a student-centric building, rather than just being a monument used sparingly every year.
As the project was procured through a closed competition, we look at ways to create an architecture that is different than the existing typology in the area. In the end, the idea of injecting various informal programs came into the design as a solution. The result is quite straightforward, yet unique.
Section of Program. A new problem arises when the main auditorium capacity is enlarged to 2.000. With a much bigger upper floor, the building will need to either decrease floor area in the communal area or reduce the budget given at other aspects of the building, such as the facade. Mass Transformation. To still achieve an efficient enough floor area for student activities while also having enough budget for the facade, we decided that it is important to build efficiently. We decided that rather than increasing floor area at the lower levels, the building should remain 'top-heavy' while we look at ideas to wrap the building efficiently. The solution comes through the creation of a minimal-waste skin configuration, which is tailored to follow the different floor masses dynamically. Through thorough research on different types of material and modules, assisted by scripting and digital simulation, we come up with the idea of wrapping the building with various sized planar aluminum panels.
Infused Activity. A big atrium is placed on the ground level, which leads to a multifunction hall on the second floor. We put smaller function rooms (meeting and study) on the mezzanine floor to create a connection between the main void and student’s activity. It’s purposely designed to accommodate both communal, specific, and private programs. The auditorium fully occupies the entire 3rd floor alongside with backstage area and cafeteria. (text by architect)
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