Award winning LA firm, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, has proposed a 120-bed student dormitory as part of a larger masterplan aiming to attract students to the Pontificia Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Two monolithic volumes come together at a clash of energies creating a new presence on the campus and in the city.
A figural void is opened up as if from the force of the impact. Here plants and people gather at what becomes the building’s main social and cultural programmatic elements. This ‘new space’ aims to induce human interaction between students and visitors. From these vistas, one has splendid views to the historic center of the city which is the island’s largest and before San Juan, the old capital. Clad in what seems to be concrete or cast-stone panels, this system as with the building mass, is fractured at the void. Windows emanate from the spaces, thinning out as the distance from the ‘action’ increases.
By:Matt Davis
Courtesy of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S
