How can a master plan balance pedestrian experience, ecological preservation, and institutional identity?

CAZA was commissioned by the President of Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University to conceive of a Master Plan to help solve issues of circulation, ecological preservation, and institutional identity. 

The Plan consists of two parts: an overall Master Plan and a newly-designed lakefront student center. The overall Plan integrates the natural landscape into the campus while addressing accessibility issues, while the new student center gives members of the university a better place to study and interact with one another.

CAZA’s Master Plan is centered around the reintroduction of the lake at the heart of this hilltop university campus. We proposed treating the previously invisible lake as an important experiential element, crucial to transforming an urban hardscape campus into a contemplative retreat and green refuge for students, faculty, and visitors.

The existing parking plan was disorganized and inefficient, so CAZA developed a series of parking lots along the perimeter of the campus, connected through a series of walkways for passengers to enter into central areas of the campus. By keeping cars away from the main campus, CAZA was able to plot a series of parks and green spaces along the new pedestrian footpaths, allowing the area’s natural landscape to permeate this architectural intervention.

• TEAM: Carlos Arnaiz
• CLIENT: National Chiao Tung University