The proposed campus for Stamford University of Bangladesh is located at the heart of the city, in the urban area of Siddheswari, Dhaka. The site area is bare minimum, only 2.5 Acres and surrounded by residential neighborhood. Considering the fact ‘The site area is too tight to have a campus with standard facilities’ – the aim of the design exercise was to explore the possibilities of the concept  Vertical Campus in a dense urban context like Dhaka where land is a scarce resource.

Stamford University, Bangladesh is one of the private universities in the country offering higher education  since 2002. The university is moving forward with a vision of excellence: “Moving Teaching Excellence from Good to Great”. Currently the University is operating in two campuses located in Dhanmondi and Siddheswari area of the city. The existing Siddheswari campus have their own infrastructures but not sufficient enough to meet the on growing demands of  tertiary education in the country. Following their vision, this  project is an attempt to moving from Good towards Great.

The campus is envisioned for 15 departments and a language center with capacity to deliver quality higher education for aprox Ten Thousands students.  To realize this vision, an estimated of 4,40,000 square feet  functional  area is required .  So, there is no alternative but going for a ‘Vertical Campus’ solution instead of horizontal arrangement of traditional campus layout . However, according to building bylaws the site allows to build a max of 7,45,000 square feet with a parking provision for 350 cars. Another challenge of this particular project is to keep the two existing building intact which are already in the site.

The campus project is conceived to articulate its building blocks around a monumental open courtyard. This central courtyard is designed for public gathering and open performance and also for informal outdoor sports.  All the functions are grouped into three zones:  Public, Administrative and Academic. Cafeteria, Auditorium, Library, Lecture Hall, Archive, TSC have open access to people hence termed as public zone.  Conference Hall , Admission Office , Exam Office , Accounts Office , Register Office , VC office are the administrative functions.  Students Block (Class Rooms), Faculty rooms, Laboratory, Indoor Sports etc are the academic functions and hence the heart of this campus project.

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