WEBSITE UNDER DEVELOPMENT
University Campus Peja
Peja, which is a node where the plain and mountainous areas intersect, comprehends and offers an enormous potential of becoming - from the sustainable development perspective - a model town of Kosovo. Its future urban structure which is surrounded by these natural characteristics and owns important traditional architectures will host a huge flux of local, national and international travelers, and by the addition of new facilities regarding the education, sports and tourism will respond to all the travelers’ necessities to be able to enjoy the cities magnificent mountainous and agricultural land nature. Today the urban and campus design are topics of growing interest not only for Kosovo, in particular the city of Peja, but also throughout the world.
Location
Peja, Kosovo
Client
Peja City Municipality - Europan Kosovo
Year
2011
Site Area
105,000 m2
Ownership
2xmstudio srls
Moataz Faissal Farid (Partner), Saloumeh Behboud (Partner)
Gyler Mydyti
Sandra Herrera
Milot Muhaxheri
View from Lavizan Park
Services
Concept: Masterplan, Urban Design, Architectural Design, Landscape Design
Program
Educational, Sport, Auditorium, Park, Residence Cultural, Retail, Restaurant
Status
Competition, Nominated Entry
One of the first key players which conduced to the definition of the master plan of the project area was the immediate observation of a linear continuity of the green areas throughout the city. This urban-green linearity starts with the existing green areas
above the city centre, continues by the city centre and the river, passes through the dense city park, enters the wildness above/behind the designed university departments, dissolves in the urban landscape, and develops by various sport camps till it goes to the research agricultural land and to the natural-suburban agricultural plain lands.
The second key player is the transformation that the artificial and natural landscapes pass through at the moment of their interaction; the rigidity of the artificial landscape that comes from the city structure is broken when it starts to interact with the natural landscape. Furthermore, the transformation of the landscape occurs from east to the west: from the hardness to the smoothness, and finally to the wildness of its own. The landscape interaction, at the same time, reflects the possible expansion of the city based on the sustainability concepts.
Masterplan
Masterplan Levels
Ground Floor Plan
1. The housing:
The structure which is situated in the east of the project area is continuous and rigid in order to delineate with an urban character the main road which connects the Peja city centre with the other main cities of Kosovo. The continuity and rigidity of this structure is broken in two different ways; firstly, it is broken by the penetration of the urban landscape with the natural landscape, which also provides the connectivity of the urban fabric with the natural one, and the visibility of the department buildings with the spectacular view of the mountains behind them.
And secondly, it is broken by its architectonic character which tends to be denser having more floors, up to 5, in the city elevation and in the mountain elevation the density gets less with at most 2 floors. The ground floors of the building blocks of this linear structure tend to be more open in order to facilitate different spaces such as open or semi open spaces. This structure contains more commercial and retail facilities in order to have a more dense urban interaction. Instead the upper floors are destined to residences (apartments and dormitories) of the students and some of the business incubators related to the university activities.
2. The Tourist Area
The Tourist Area buildings, apart from the cable car which is supposed to be constructed in the first phase, are forseen to be constructed in the second phase in the A2 plot. The buildings of this area are: the hostel for students, the retail and shopping center, the indoor gym, a vocational training center, workshop rooms, laboratories, and the designed agricultural lands which serve as practice areas for the agricultural departments students
3. The University
The building blocks which are situated in the middle of the project area where the urban and natural landscapes interact have a lower construction impact than the residential buildings in front of them. These structures are destined to the main university building, which contains the aula magna, the main library and several meeting and official rooms, and to the four departments of university, the Economics, Agriculture, Tourism and Sports departments. Instead to give continuity and connectivity to modular department blocks and the main university building there is an underground connection created between them. These buildings are tall up to 3 floors. To be able to construct the buildings of the project area in distinct phases, there have been used a modularity concept: from the very beginning of the pre-design process till a future expansion.
