School of Architecture Extension Part 1 Project 2003 Alex Flint University of Liverpool | UK To design a school of Architecture which will find equilibrium between the extremes of both form and function? A school where the functional needs of students will be met clearly and concisely at the same time as providing an individual experience of perceptional consciousness, surrounding thought and meaning to the existence of being. The schools is born from the identity and structural path of the existing extension. Contained within this path exists passages of contemplation. These exist as suspended elements of time and identity. Light, both natural and artificial provide the control for their perception and use. This project presents a delightful manipulation of space and light in a proposed extension of the Liverpool School of Architecture.The extension is developed in a linear fashion, along one the main back-bone axis of the University of Liverpool campus, providing a satisfactory spatial relationship with the existing studio space. The internal spaces are organised along an atrium which opens onto a sunken landscaped courtyard, providing a possibility for another extension.The tension between public and private spaces, communal and individual spaces is translated into contradicting elements: a thirteen-meter high concrete wall on the west facade is adjacent to a series of crit volumes that can slide out onto the public route. The studio space provides contrasting experiences of large open spaces and secluded comtemplation/meditation cells.There is a clear hierarchical organisation of spaces and an exquisite variety of spatial experiences within a simple architectural form.