And no, not Air, the French duo who made Moon Safari-although that would be kind of cool. Instead, Swedish architect Bjarke Ingels is inverting the notions of a conventional university building design to allow for the building’s denizens (mostly medical students and scientific researchers) to have greater access to nature. Fast Company Design reports:
Paris PARC will be smushed between a host of other university buildings (including Jean Nouvel’s sleek Institut du Monde Arabe), making it difficult to gain access to light and fresh air. By inflating and compressing the sides of a rectangular volume and hollowing out the middle, the architects create little pockets that welcome light and air into the building’s innermost recesses. A sloping green roof will be open to the public, and the top floors will look out onto Notre Dame and the rest of Paris’s spectacular skyline.
The designs look really great, and it’s interesting to consider what effects of working in a building whose design foregrounds the concept of play might have on the busy-bodies inside.
-Drew Millard