Nicolas Koff 3/3/25 Nicolas Koff 3/3/25

New School of Jilovsko

The heart of the site becomes a node to explore this diversity: spaces to play, explore, exercise, gather, and learn. The school contains a variety of formal and informal, indoor and outdoor, spaces for learning organized around a shared commons.

Location: Jilovsko, Czechia
Status: Competition
Date: 2024

Discovering the richness of our immediate surroundings is the first step in learning about the world. The school is integrated into local ecology. Inviting the forest and natural water management into the site creates a diversity of landscapes. The heart of the site becomes a node to explore this diversity: spaces to play, explore, exercise, gather, and learn. The school contains a variety of formal and informal, indoor and outdoor, spaces for learning organized around a shared commons.

The School of Jílovsko will serve residents of five neighbouring municipalities. This amalgamation will foster new relationships, promote educational excellence, and ensure equal access to high-quality education for all residents. The school will become a central hub for learning and community activity. It will provide a platform for students, parents, and educators from different towns to come together, exchange ideas, and collaborate on educational initiatives. This inclusive approach will create a rich, dynamic, and diverse learning environment, enriching the educational experience beyond Jílovsko.

A central node for the community

The school is centrally located on a public path between important public spaces. The school must embrace its role as a central node that connects residents.

The school site is surrounded by diversity of landscapes: the fields, patches of forest, Sirotčí strouha seasonal creek, the pond, and the Radlík village itself. It is at a connection of two ecological axis - the seasona creek of Sirotčí strouha and the local pond network. The school should act as an ecological connector for the local ecosystem.

Welcoming Local Landscapes

While large portions of the local landscape are used for agriculture, there remain fairly diverse biotopes in the region, from mixed forests to grasslands and wetlands. These biotopes, mapped below (from nature.cz information) can inform the types of landscapes that can come to coexist on site with the school. Based on research and local data, there had been sightings of over one hundred different species within a 2 km radius of the site. These included plants, fungi, birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, insects and arachnids. These species predominantly dwelled within riparian, grassland and forest ecosystems. With the proper site and planting strategy, the site itself can become an important connector for wildlife networks and regional ecosystems, allowing children to become stewards of the local ecology.

The site should welcome local landscape typologies, becoming a connector for larger regional networks and habitats: grasslands and wetlands, forests, and productive landscapes.

Four Units

The school is organized into four units. Each unit has a distinct programme, relationship to its context, morphology, height, and expression. Some units are taller than others. Some have accessible green roofs.

Unit 1 is tallest and contains all Tier II classrooms. Unit 2 is of middle height and contains all Tier I classrooms. Unit 3 contains pre-school and school administration. Unit 4 contains the gym.

Ground Floor Programme Distribution

On the ground floor the program is distrubuted into different wings. Kitchen and Cafeteria is in Unit 1. Afterschool and Library in Unit 2. Unit 3 contains pre-school and school administration. Unit 4 contains the gym.

The wings of the ground floor connect to the main hall in the centre.

Hierarchy of Spaces

On a typical floor, the programme is organized hierarchically. An atrium shared by the entire school is in the centre of the floorplate. Smaller common spaces, shared by a cluster of classrooms are accessed off of the atrium. Classrooms and other rooms are accessed from these smaller common spaces. Each common space opens onto a terrace.

Each cluster of classrooms contains the following: core classrooms for two grades, specialized classrooms and other rooms shared by an entire tier, washrooms, common spaces, and an outdoor space.

Nicolas Koff 3/19/22 Nicolas Koff 3/19/22

Yeouido Performing Arts Center

A performing arts center and major public park in the heart of Seoul

  
    Location:
     Seoul, South Korea
  
    Status:
    Competition
  
    Date:
    2023

There once was a mountain called Yangmal in the northern part of Yeoido Island. There were also grasslands and sandy plains along the river. Before it was cut down to make way for the new parliament building, Yangmalsan was a local landmark, a place for diverse human activities, alternatingly documented as a place for shepherds, for dwelling and for sacred rituals.

We propose creating a hill, a seasonal native landscape that reconnects the surrounding site and the local ecologies from riparian wetlands to forest; an iconic shared space for nature and culture. The hill, an interplay of water, planting and glazed volumes, reminiscent of waterfalls, invites exploration of its terrain, and the discovery of its large halls and hidden performance space, its places for meditation and its major vistas. Performing arts and day-to-day life become an ever-changing layer within the local landscapes.

Office Ou - Sustainable Architecture, Landscape, planning - Korea - Yeouido performing arts center axo

Nicolas Koff 5/29/19 Nicolas Koff 5/29/19

416 Park and Memorial

Beyond the water, a forest of tall trees stands out even from a distance. Below these trees, twinkling lights, and a solemn space to gather and commemorate the tragedy of the Sewol Ferry. This is the first scenery that people who visit 416 park will encounter.

  
    Location:
    Asan, South Korea
  
    Status:
    Competition Entry
  
    Date:
    2021
  
With:
    HLD Landscape

The Sewol ferry disaster touched all of Korean society. 416 park will welcome people so that they may commemorate the victims of the tragedy, and find hope and support in the midst of sorrow. There are still many questions that remain unanswered about the ferry disaster, and 416 park must also be a place to gain understanding and find answers to these questions. 416 park is a place with many different identities: a place of mourning and commemoration, a place of learning and solidarity, and a place to cherish life and live each day with hope in our hearts.

The twinkling lights in the forest lead to a space with stone slabs that symbolize all the anonymous citizens who participate in the remembrance process. This is a collective memory space that invites all to reflect upon the events of 4/16. Glass blocks placed between the stones transmit warm sunlight to the space where the 250 of the victims from Danwon High School are laid to rest. Light shines down into the underground, illuminating a place for more inward remembrance, away from the crowds, and when the evening twilight sets, 304 points of light shine into the night.

The stone slabs of the collective memory space

Light shines from above, into the space of remembrance

Spaces of solidarity and spaces of remembrance

The park has many roles to play: it must support mourning, commemoration, learning, healing, and finally the day-to-day life of the local community. These roles must coexist without conflict. Certain roles require dedicated spaces, a singular place of remembrance and enshrinement, a place with amenities for community building and support, etc… These spaces have distinct identities, but are connected through a pathway that also provides access to the the exhibition and documentation spaces.

All facilities on site function independently while being connected. Mostly underground, the community and exhibition spaces have a subdued expression.

A subdued yet inviting community center and office pavillion, is located to the south, above the storehouse for ease of loading and access. Connected to this building, but publicly accessible from the central ramp, the exhibition space and large multi-purpose hall provide a different experience. These are also conveniently located adjacent to the storehouse.

The Exhibition Spaces

The exhibition lobby is accessed from the ramp that leads to the commemoration spaces. Upon entering, visitors can access the multi-purpose hall at the same level, or proceed to the exhibition spaces located underground (at the same level as the storehouse). Permanent and special exhibition spaces are located across from each other around a central courtyard, allowing each to have its own procession.

Nature and life permeate almost all spaces on site, whether it be through light, forests or water. The exhibition building follows that thread by having at its core a vegetated courtyard, around which major circulation is structured. It is a way to bring light down and anchor an element of life into a place that not only educates visitors about a tragedy, but also commemorates the life of the victims.

The Community Plaza

Unlike the exhibition and commemoration components of the site, the community center, along with its surrounding landscape should foster a sense of welcoming and inclusion. It is a place that provides ongoing support to the local community and should feel warm and comfortable rather than iconic and monumental. The community center prioritizes horizontality, maximizing connections to the plazas and forest that surround it. It disappears from view as visitors descend along the path that leads to the exhibition and commemoration spaces.

Nicolas Koff 5/29/19 Nicolas Koff 5/29/19

Jan Vodnansky School: Diversity Nurtures Unique Educational Journeys

The school is a collection of diverse educational opportunities: classrooms, spaces for performance and display, nooks for small gatherings, lounges and playgrounds for group interactions, gardens for growing vegetables and for supporting pollinators and other species. All organized around a central shared atrium.

  
    Location:
     Prague, Czech Republic
  
    Status:
    Competition Entry
  
    Date:
    2022

Diversity enables children to create their own educational journeys, and grow through sharing the world in their personal, unique way.

Connectivity Through Shared Spaces

The school is structured in a way that creates two interconnected wings of program: The main school wing and the gym, events and support wing:

The main school wing contains all classrooms and central administrative programs, with early education at grade (near the outdoor play area), tier one on the 1st floor, tier two on the 2nd floor and specialized classrooms distributed on the third floor and within the base.

Language classrooms and office spaces are divided equally among all floors. The gym and support wing has the kitchens, loading, cafeteria and individual access at grade, upon which all gyms, lockers and sports fields are located.

This wing can operate independently before and after hours, facilitating not only use by the local community, but also creating a safe loading and food pickup strategy that doesn’t interfere with the day-to-day operations of the school.

Operational Layout

While it is a playful space for creativity and growth, the school is also organized as to maximize efficiency and safe access for both children and staff. Dedicated access is created for younger and older children, while shared spaces, core and specialized classrooms are situated to maximize accessibility.

Nicolas Koff 5/29/19 Nicolas Koff 5/29/19

Goyang City Hall: A Civic Place rooted in Nature and Community

The identity of a city is established through an interaction of local ecology, culture (history), and community. A future oriented, eco-friendly city that empowers its citizens should cherish and nurture connections between its ecology, culture and community.

  
    Location:
    Goyang, South Korea
  
    Status:
    Competition Entry
  
    Date:
    2021
  
With:
    HLD Landscape, SAC

The new Goyang City Hall is located at an intersection of a Hoguk-ro and Daejangcheon. Whereas Hoguk-ro and Goyang-daero are familiar to the people of Goyang, the Daejangcheon was long neglected. The re-naturalized creek improves ecological resilience of natural networks of Goyang-si, and celebrates a connection to local ecology. The new City Hall and the Council buildings frame and activate a Community Plaza, the heart of the site, at the intersection of urban and creek landscape. At the Community Plaza, diverse spatial conditions facilitate a multiplicity of public activities for all of the citizens of Goyang-si.

The City Hall that welcomes the local community to inhabit this intersection between nature and the city is a symbol of a future oriented, eco-friendly city that cherishes its local ecology and empowers its citizens.

Naturalized Landscape

The natural zone is located around the re-naturalized Daejangcheon creek. It consists of an expanded riparian corridor an ecologically important park space, which also becomes a public amenity for the city. The Natural Landscape improves the ecological resilience of the local natural networks of Goyang-si, supporting both local flora and fauna. Its immersive public spaces, where one can reconnect to nature, include large “petal” platforms from which to observe the creek, and invite people to rediscover the beauty and importance of the local landscapes. We hope that the creek renaturalization project can be expanded, creating a longer connective network, with its heart at the new city hall.

Civic Landscape

The Civic Plaza is located along the west side of the site, facing Hoguk-ro and provides access to the city hall, council and future addition buildings. It provides a buffer between the City Hall complex and the busy road. This plaza is also the civic face of the complex, a lush yet structured landscape with ample seating that welcomes visitors and staff alike. The civic plaza is home to a central sunken courtyard to host diverse public events, which connects directly to the auditorium, cultural clubrooms and the underground level. The plaza is purposefully devoid of vehicular drop-offs (located on the other side of the buildings) in order to prioritize pedestrian access.

Community Plaza

The Community Plaza is at the intersection of the Natural and Civic Landscape. It is a diverse, active space connected to all major community and institutional programs of the City Hall complex. The Council space is directly adjacent, and visually opens the Community Plaza, as is the Main Auditorium with Bookstore Cafe, and Community Center. Major public entrances to both buildings are located off of the Community Plaza. Open and covered canopies provide infrastructure for activities in all seasons and weather conditions.

City Hall Building

Goyang’s City Hall is located such that there is a generous civic plaza between the street and building. This allows for various activities of different sizes to occur - whether it be small gatherings or large cultural events. The sunken auditorium, both at the interior and exterior, allows for this flexibility while also maintaining a strong connection to the civic plaza. Public programs such as the community centre, book cafe and libraries similarly connect City Hall with the community plaza to the north. This creates a diverse environment where the building and its inhabitants can activate the plazas. The building is accessed by vehicle via a dropoff zone at the south of the building. South of City Hall there is also a two storey parkade that connects to the two levels of underground parking.

All public program is located within the podium of City Hall. A large staircase in the atrium leads patrons to the a generous lounge on L2, with libraries and the civic petitions centre at either end. More public-oriented programs such as the studio and pressrooms are also situated on L2. From L3 upwards, all floors are private and for staff only. Mayor’s and Director’s offices are all located at L8, where green roof terraces can also be found. Planted terraces throughout the different floors allow for a close connection to nature and promote well being for the staff. In addition to these green spaces, all offices are located around the perimeter of the floor plate to ensure that they have ample access to natural daylight and fresh air. This circular office arrangement also allows for layout flexibiliy as departments change over time, while the circulation cores and meeting spaces remain in place and form a buffer between the open offices and the atrium

Council Building

The Council Building’s council chamber faces and activates the community plaza to the south. An audience lounge on Level 2 is accessed via the building’s green atrium, where views are provided to not only the chamber below but also the community plaza beyond. Large doors within the council chamber provide privacy when needed. Levels 2 to 4 contain all required offices and support spaces, and an accessible green roof terrace allows for outdoor staff gatherings. There is a dedicated dropoff area to the north of the building for staff and visitors, and a ramp provides access to the underground parking levels where there is a physical connection with City Hall.

Nicolas Koff 5/23/19 Nicolas Koff 5/23/19

Vilnius Concert Hall

  
    Location:
    Vilnius, Lithuania
  
    Status:
    Competition Entry
  
    Date:
    2019
  
    With:
    Studio Vaaro

The New National Concert Hall “Tautos Namai” has been a long time in the making and has the potential to become a major cultural attractor and incubator for the city of Vilnius. With this goal in mind, it is critical that the House of the Nation and the two state-of-the-art Concert Halls should coexist in a way that redefines the highly symbolic site of Tauras Hill as an open, inclusive and multipurpose resource for the city. Our proposal for the National Concert Hall, a highly visible icon composed of three pure shapes, will act as a new form of social infrastructure to foster creativity, learning, and engagement with Lithuania’s strong cultural heritage.

Three Distinct Volumes

The brief calls for three main programs: the Grand Hall, the Small Hall, and the House of the Nation. Each of these programs has its own scale and specific requirements; we have chosen to express each of them as such. These three distinct, visually independent volumes carefully placed at the top of Tauras Hill allow for a clear and direct reading of the New National Concert Hall from throughout the city. The receding scale of the three buildings, from large, to medium, to small, from the more ceremonial and monumental to the more intimate and familiar, creates a dynamic yet poised addition to the Vilnius sky line. Subtle variations to the facade modulations and roof slopes of all three volumes provides them each with a unique character while allowing them to co-exist harmoniously as a whole.

1. The Grand Hall Volume

The Grand Hall is the largest of the three programs and as such, the Grand Hall Volume is the largest of the three volumes. The Hall itself is inspired by the classic European shoebox concert halls, such as the Grosser Musikvereinssaal (Vienna) and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam). The Hall interior adopts a simple and efficient shape that is dictated by the stringent acoustic requirements. The Hall itself is set back from the North, East and West facades. It is therefore expressed as a distinct volume floating within the brick facade enclosure, ensuring that it is clearly visible from the city to the North. The Grand hall foyers are shifted and stacked along the North facade, providing commanding views of Vilnius.

2. The Small Hall Volume

This mid-sized volume includes both the Small Hall and the public Entry Hall, the principal access point of the building and a performance and events space in its own right. Lifted off the ground and set back from the North and South facades, the Small Hall appears suspended above the Entry Hall, and again is clearly visible from the city to the North. Lifting the hall creates a triple-height space at the North of the Entry hall, and generous views onto the city. The Small Hall is a well-proportioned, multi-functional performance space designed for optimal acoustics and high reconfigurability. Capable of accommodating intimate piano recitals, chamber music performances, and hosting talks and gala dinners, the Small Hall is a truly flexible space.

3. The House of the Nation Volume

The smallest of the three volumes, The House of the Nation is no less powerful. The House of the Nation (HoN) itself has been conceived as a cutting-edge cultural incubator and social connector that will provide publicly accessible spaces for cultural and educational activities. Located across two levels, the HoN has deliberately been expressed independently from the two concert halls and is highly visible from the city and from the main East drop-off. The ground floor is conceived as a flexible exhibition and performance space. A double-height cutout along the North facade, with integrated bleacher seating, allows for a unique vantage point during performances and provides a visual connection to the Mediatheque and Cultural Library above. The restaurant and Library/Mediatheque programs are seen as extensions of the HoN program and as opportunities to spread awareness of Lithuanian literature, music, and cuisine. As a whole, the House of the Nation Volume will be a valuable resource that will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas about Lithuanian history and culture.

A Place Between Grassland and Forest

Located at the top of Tauras Hill, the site lies at the intersection of two distinct landscape typologies: the mixed-forest landscape of the urban parks to the South, East and West, and the grassy slopes of Tauras hill. While these two landscapes each have their own value and iconic character, they neither form a cohesive ecological network nor welcome visitors to dwell within them.

The missing link: A Connective Central Landscape

Our site is the pinch point between these two landscapes, and the existing building on site currently acts as a barrier, disconnecting them from each other.

Through the creation of entry plaza spaces on each side of the building and a network of passageways through the site, we propose the creation of a connective landscape that reconnects the various adjacent ecosystems to the site and to one another. This not only provides pedestrian connections through the site, but also creates ecological corridors for wildlife and pollinators, as well as new hydrological opportunities for stormwater management and erosion control.

An Immersive Forest Hub

This central reconnective landscape uses planting and paving to create a gradual shift from dense forest to visually open grassland. It is a central hub of cultural activity, and a place of respite that welcomes visitors to dwell. The site is to be planted with native species of coniferous trees and fragrant ground covers that immerse visitors within a type of forest that would have once covered the majority of Lithuania, a place where one can feel both safe and in touch with the land. This planting scheme provides comfortable shelter from the noise and bustle of urban life while creating a clear and distinct landscape identity that signals one’s arrival to the concert hall.

Small Hall, during the performance of a quartet