Mecanoo has been announced the winner of a competition for the masterplan of Senezh Management Lab, the campus of a new management school in Russia. Located outside Moscow, the new campus is organized around four functional areas: learning zone, park zone, waterfront, and archaeological park. The natural environment that surrounds frames the building and views.
At the heart of the scheme, lecture halls, a library, winter garden, classrooms, and apartments are brought together under a single wooden roof. The curving roof maximizes open space while uniting the building’s users within a single entity.
Recalling the agoras of ancient Greece, the main campus building is designed as a single environment, without corridors or hierarchies. On that theme, it accommodates buildings that facilitate new methods of learning, promoting community, plurality and diversity. The architects explain: ‘The life of the campus will be concentrated in the agora, promoting encounters between students, staff, professors and invited guests, The complex connects and expands towards the park integrating architecture within the natural landscape, making the entire natural park a place for learning and recreation also.'
And of course unique to the project is its positioning within an expansive forest region. Thus a wide range of outdoor activities such as biking paths, hiking trails, sports fields, a concert venue, open-air cinema, and pavilions form a key aspect of the plan. The voids in the forest, programmed with various activities are linked by the current path structure which is to be reinforced with new connections.
