University Senate Center | Chyutin Architects

The University Senate Center by Chyutin Architects is located in Beer Sheva, Isreal and is 6,000 square meters. The whole complex reflects an architectural trend moved by the weather imperatives of a desert environment. The exterior walls shelter the center patio and provide protection from wind, while investigating the effects of imposing a circular movement in a square plan. The following is a statement by the architect about their design that explains more about this building:

The Ben-Gurion University Senate Building was designed to serve as the University’s administrative center, and contains offices, the Senate Hall, and an exhibition space. The building, which faces the campus’s main entrance plaza, on the main lengthwise pedestrian axis, is shaped like a monolithic cube with sandstone cladding, and encloses a circular inner courtyard. The main entrance to the plaza to the building is designed like a cleft carved into the rock of a canyon.

The courtyard, open towards the building and closed towards the desert, constitutes an inner world that is protected against the winds and shaded from the sun. The use of an inner courtyard that the public spaces face onto is a characteristic element of residential buildings in the Mediterranean and desert regions. The Senate hall is shaped like an inclined cone, has cladding of sandstone and bricks, and stands in a narrow space that creates a tension towards the wall of the central building.