An open plan chill space is provided in the eastern corner of the floor with expansive views out . This Me space is a place for students to reflect and ideate removed from the bustle of the studios and atrium .
Level 4 accommodates a further 2 studios and the HPI Lab , a post graduate facility funded by the Hasso Plattner Institute . The larger of the two studios caters for students participating in the schools 12-week foundation programme . Unlike the other studios which are reset after every session , this studio allows for more permanent team spaces to be setup and retained for the duration of the course .
The second floor also accommodates main reflection space which is a quiet retreat away from the rest of the school and has views out towards Upper Campus and Devils Peak . Small breakaway balconies are provided off the studios on both levels allowing students to take short breaks from the fast-paced studio sessions .
Materials and Palette The character and materiality of Middle Campus , where prominent buildings like the Kramer Law Building and the Woolsack Residences were built in the early 1980s , differs significantly from Upper Campus . Wheaten facebrick , brutalist concrete and Luytens plaster were the predominant material palette . In recent years two new notable buildings , the School of Economics and Masingene have evolved and softened this palette and introduced structural steel elements and flat roofs into the campus character . The d-school takes it cue from these two fine buildings , making use of similar materials and colour palette , with the exception of facebrick and Luytens plaster , which has been replaced with locally sourced sandstone cladding providing a similar but elevated finish . The resulting external finishes , comprising structural steel , aluminium sun shading , sandstone cladding , glass and planted screens result in a building that integrates into the campuses evolving character .
The interior architecture was , from an early design stage , understood to be one of the key means to enable creative behaviour in students . This philosophy , how each element of the building influences the behaviour of its occupants , has been a key driver of the design . Aesthetics and materiality are of equal importance to flexible and configurable space to make an environment to test , fail , think and act differently .
The buildings concrete mass must be exposed in order for the TABS design to work and provide radiant cooling . Thus , the off-shutter concrete soffits have been exposed and the vast majority of the floors are a fine polished concrete . This combined with off-shutter columns and exposed steel secondary structure forms the foundation of the interior aesthetic . All studio walls are painted white and many faced with vitreous enamel white boards . These elements combined create a sense of the artist ’ s studio , where finishes are resilient , not overly refined and tacitly give permission to be creative .
The detailing of the interior architecture consistently and deliberately exposes and celebrates building services , junctions and connections and materials . What things are made of , how they are made and connected to each other , most obviously celebrated by the free-form lattice shell roof , extends the theme of a “ Teaching Building ” to positively influence the creative behavior of students . d-school “ red ” is an iconic part of all three HPI d-school ’ s characters . This vibrant colour has been threaded through the building in various tertiary elements offset against the raw offshutter and polished concrete finishes . Finally , light timber and a range of secondary colours , synonymous with the vibrancy of this particular d-school in Africa , are introduced in circulation spaces , bespoke furniture items and graphics . The resultant aesthetic communicates a feeling that one has entered a different type of learning space with a palpable sense of the possible .
Sustainability To achieve the sustainability target of a Green Star New Build 6 Star rating a collaborative and inclusive co-design process had to be adopted
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