Library Buildings around the World

The Soheil Abedian School of Architecture is located on the campus designed in the 1980s by Arata Isozaki. It forms part of
the Faculty of Architecture and Sustainable Design.Winning the competition in January 2011, CRAB was awarded the
contract and the building is on Fast Track.
Again, Cook and Robotham’s long experience as teachers of architecture and their regular working knowledge of several
including the Bartlett, AA, Harvard, SCI-ARC, Columbia, Frankfurt and UCLA enables them to incorporate a response to
many anecdotal criteria as well as constructional and climatic objectives.
The building is a long, airy loft on two to three levels articulated y a series of ‘scoops’: defining structure-enclosures that can
be used for casual meetings and ‘crit’ sessions. These line the central street that gently rises up the hilltop site. Advantage is
taken of the east-west axis to clarify a very climate-controlled development of the north and south skins of the building.
The Soheil Abedian School of Architecture is CRAB’S second University building, and it is rising up fast. Its character is
very much developed out of the experiences of Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham as teachers and users of many architecture
schools. As with their other work, the sociology of small, intimate groups within institutions, the value of casual overlay, the
importance of the non-curricula moments – as well as a ‘sense of theatre’ runs through the project. The central ‘street’ is
flanked by irregular ‘scoops’ – coves of structure that give character to the unfolding of the studios and study rooms. As
befits a hot and sometimes sticky climate, the building is airy and folds over upon itself in a series of fan-like roofs and slits.
(http://www.archdaily.com)
Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham (CRAB Studio) won a 2010 international competition to design Bond University’s
Soheil Abedian School of Architecture. With construction underway, Cook and Robotham visited the Gold Coast in October
2012 to review the progress. Cameron Bruhn joined them on site.
Circulating the corridors of the University of Queensland’s architecture school (my alma mater) is a story about Sir Peter
Cook’s visit in the mid 1980s. The tale’s not so much about him being there as a visiting professor – although that should
surely rate a mention – rather, it’s about a vigorous stoush with another visiting Brit, Alison Smithson, during a student
critique. There isn’t a lot more to the story and I guess that explains its longevity.
Cook was recently in Australia to preview a project of his Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau (CRAB) currently under
construction on the Gold Coast. Cook and Gavin Robotham (his partner in CRAB) have both taught in architecture schools
across the world, and together bring a wealth of experience and anecdotal observations to the task of designing Australia’s
newest architecture school, Bond University’s Soheil Abedian School of Architecture.
The school accepted its first student enrolments in January 2011, with the former Queensland government architect,
Professor Philip Follent, appointed founding head. CRAB, in association with Populous and Brit Andresen, won the
international design competition for the new school’s building in 2010. The latest of Cook’s architectural formations, CRAB
was established in 2006, Cook and Robotham having already worked on a number of competitions together. Since forming,
the studio has won competitions for the Verbania Theatre in Piedmont, Italy, and the law faculty and administration
buildings of the new Vienna Economics University in Austria, the latter currently also under construction.
Bond’s School of Architecture takes the name of Soheil Abedian, a longstanding supporter of the university and the founder
and chairman of Gold Coast-based property development company the Sunland Group. The building is due for completion
in May 2013, and its sculptural concrete scoops are already emerging from the ground. These four concrete blades are
structural, environmental and experiential elements. They create un-programmable spaces for critiques, group work and
exhibition (and of course alumni gossip).
The diagram of the building is straightforward enough – a gently ramping internal street runs the length and height of the
envelope, with studio spaces over two levels on one side and three levels of offices and service functions on the other. This
space undulates in section, with bridges crossing overhead and stairs connecting up and around. The roof is a flat, lily-pad-
like structure that rests on an array of slender columns, creating a colonnade around the perimeter. At the entrance, the
form cantilevers forward like a protruding nose – a classic Cook motif – to welcome us.
For those old enough to remember Monty Python, Sir Peter (and the Archigram group) are the architectural manifestation
of an English naughtiness that made an inane exchange about a dead parrot pure comic genius. Fart jokes are still part of
Sir Peter’s repartee. In conversation with him during his visit to Bond University I asked him about that legendary student
critique in Brisbane almost thirty years ago.
The story survives amid the anecdotes from a distinguished, yet irreverent, career in architectural practice, teaching and
discourse. As it turns out the disagreement was about a “rationalist” project that was being presented. Cook: for, Smithson:
against. Smithson was intractable. Having made their respective points with some force, they decamped to the staff club for
lunch, happily gossiping about this and that. As Cook would say, there are too many architects wandering around “po-
faced.” (http://www.architectureau.com)
Vienna Economics University, Law School, Library, Vienna – Austria 2013
Budget : € 40,000,000 Dimension : 26,000 m2 CLIENT : PROJECTGESELLSCHAFT WIRTSCHAFTSUNIVERSITAT
WIEN IMMOBILIENGESELLSCHAFT m.b.h GENERAL CONTRACTOR : VASKO + PARTNER INGENIEURE,
WIEN PROJECT MANAGEMENT : TECHNISCHE GESCHAFTSFUHRUNG DER ARGE PS : DREES & SOMMER
WIEN GmbH
Located in the Prater Park of Vienna’s 2nd District a completely new campus will open in 2013 for this long-established
University. A series of parallel 3-stage competitions led to CRAB being awarded the contact for the interlocking buildings
that have a 270 m. face to the woods of the Prater. A strong feature of the buildings is CRAB’s attitude to providing casual
meeting spaces and outside shelter – largely based upon their long experience of University life. The building rises in a series
of snake-like tiers : running from ‘earth’ colour to ‘light’ as you go up the building. A connecting roof garden runs from the
Prater park into the University’s courts : over the top of the Law Library. From within, the entrance is flanked by two
‘gleaming’ glass corners : on one side the coffee shop and on the other the students’ common room. The present stage of
constriction is illustrated. (Cook)
Der aus einem Verwaltungsgebäude und dem Departmentgebäude D3 bestehende bunte Gebäudekomplex im Westen wurde
von Sir Peter Cook und seinem CRABstudio geplant. Er beinhaltet die juristischen Departments, Forschungsinstitute und
die Spezialbibliothek Wirtschaftsrecht ebenso wie das Rektorat, weitere universitäre Verwaltungseinheiten und einen
Bäcker. (http://blog.wu.ac.at)
Weiter im Inneren des Campus findet sich das zweiteilige Departmentgebäude D4des spanischen Büros Estudio Carme
Pinós. Die dynamische Fensteranordnung prägt die Fassade des Gebäudes. Eine Spezialbibliothek (Sozialwissenschaften)
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