Learning Pods will house the Study Clusters and Dry Labs. These study clusters - dry lab blocks of buildings are the encapsulation of educational facilities where learning ,dissemination, exchange and resolution of information and ideas take place.
Macro-flexibility
On a macro-scale, the 11 Pods allow for the different combinations and permutation of programmatic zoning of labs, facilitators’ offices and study clusters. These permutations occur both horizontally as well as vertically.
The modular organization allows for the arrangement of highly mobile user groups at the lower levels to reduce the traveling time within the nucleus. For example, facilitators’ offices could be placed at the lawn level to cut down traveling time. Students could also be organized in 2 ways, by school (with differing need to travel) and by seniority. Thus, students of different schools may be placed in different blocks, or interspersed within a block; students may be grouped in blocks according to seniority for efficient sharing of facilities and concentration of services, or they may be interspersed to encourage multi-level learning.
Micro-flexibility
As the Republic Polytechnic evolve, the need to massage or change the ratio of teaching and learning spaces becomes inevitable. Thus, on a micro-scale, the design of the 40m x 40m Pods allow for interchangeability and maximum flexibility within each floorplate. Programmes may be organized in different modes, e.g., upper/lower, interspersed, mosaic, specialized or mixture according to distribution needs or programmatic, curriculum changes or intake changes which may affect the ratio of labs to clusters. The core and service elements are arranged in a linear fashion within the floorplate leaving 2 large re-configurable spaces of 16m clear spans on either side for the placement of study clusters, dry labs or facilitators’ offices. The Pods have a floor to floor height of 4.5m which allows these large span areas to be re-configurable into seminar rooms, lecture theatres, wet labs clean rooms, etc according to future needs.
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