On the invitation of Sberbank, (designed by) Erick van Egeraat took part in the design competition for the newly established Sberbank Corporate University, close to the Novorizhkaya highway, west of Moscow.
The site is located in a suburban, almost rural setting, bordered by woods on its southern side, and the Istra river embankment on the northern side. The 30,000-m2 Sberbank Corporate University will consist of education and conference spaces, dormitories, guest teacher quarters, teacher housing, a club building and sports facilities.
The spacious and very attractive setting allows for a campus model; the programme’s distribution on site creates comfortably scaled public spaces that allow for individual relations with the natural surroundings. Education, lodging and sports functions are each clustered in orthogonally defined volumes. Taking into account the climate, all building elements except the townhouses are connected with an elegant and climate controlled colonnade. This colonnade is programmed with recreational, bar and relaxation functions, serving as an identifying backbone of the entire complex.
Defining technical demand are a high level of sustainability and a very short building process. The campus lay-out allows for many building elements to be constructed simultaneously. The load bearing structure consists of prefabricated concrete columns and floor slabs. All facade and space dividing elements are executed with prefabricated wood and glass elements. The complex fully integrates sustainable design tools and technologies, putting sustainability in the centre of the corporate agenda.
