TOBB UET Technology Center

The designated area for the Engineering and Fine Arts Departments within the TOBB UET Söğütözü Campus development plan is on the left side of the School of Foreign Languages. The engineering buildings to be designed in this area will connect to the fine arts building and the library. A new building with similar size and organization is designed in a way that allows for future development, with reserve sections left at the end of the corridors that connect to each other with bridges.

The transparent façades of the shared spaces, the laboratories, the water turbine test center planned for the basement floor, as well as the indoor garden surrounded by patios can be perceived from almost every point in the building. The completely transparent indoor garden façade visually connects all the spaces. The lecture hall is designed in proximity with the corridor, and the entrance on the basement floor provides access to the indoor garden from the cafeteria. The aim is that the students will actively use the indoor garden that constitutes the heart of the building.

The building program includes a total of 82 laboratories that vary between 64 and 200 square meters in size for the Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Nanotechnology Engineering departments. Twelve studios and design and modeling workshops were designed for Fine Arts Department.

The largest water turbine test center in the world, TOBB UET HYDRO, is planned for a 600 square meter area on the basement floor. The space is 12 meters high and it receives day light form the indoor garden and the façade, although it is located on the basement floor. The 7 meter deep reinforced concrete box that is separated from the building with dilatation and covered with prefabricated planks contains the underfloor section of the mechanism and the water tank for the test center.

Many shafts are planned for the unlimited development of the functions and the technical character of the building program. Provisions have been made for eventual expansion and/modification of the technical fittings, since this is essential to continually satisfy such needs.

The basement floor has wide corridors that allow for vehicle entry. The laboratories are accessible through forklift corridors and cargo lifts that connect to each floor and receive service from the outside. Hardened concrete is used for the floor. The technical fittings are exposed by avoiding the use of suspended roof systems, which is complementary with the architectural language.