Charles Hostler Student Center | VJAA - Vincent James Associates Architects

The program is organized as a cluster of interior and exterior spaces instead of as a single building. The project integrates social gathering spaces for students and faculty with facilities for swimming, basketball, volleyball and squash, fitness, an auditorium and amphitheater, a cafe, and underground parking. The building form redistributes air, activity and shade to form a continuous field of habitable space and a variety of microclimates. The use of the lower shaded spaces in the daytime and the rooftops at night is especially common in Beirut. This vertical migration generated a more three-dimensional system of passageways, program, and gardens in the project.