Congratulations to McCullough Mulvin Architects as the Overall Winner of The Plan Award 2021 with Thapar University Learning Laboratory

Thapar University Learning Laboratory was announced the Overall Winner of The Plan Award 2021 at a ceremony in Venice on Tuesday, 12 October. Selected from a total of over 1,400 international entries, shortlisted to three, the jury described Thapar University Learning Laboratory as "a fantastic project... evocative of natural geographies... solid geometric bodies and a sense of timelessness."
 
The new Learning Laboratory at the heart of Thapar University in Patiala, India is designed by McCullough Mulvin with DesignPlus Associates Delhi - an Irish-Indian team. The huge stone structure marks the latest stage of a project to build a new University in the flat landscapes of the Punjab. India is alive with energy and ambition; the requirement for education is like a torrent; the Learning Laboratory reflects this new energy. Its architecture makes a new geography of place. 
 
The Learning Laboratory is a new type of meeting space, an engine for education, a city for students; it mediates timeless form and offers complex spatial adventures. The design comprises a library, lecture theatres and science faculty, each in a tall red Agra stone volumes with white marble detail, the facades mediated using louvred stone screens like traditional Jaali screens. A podium structure runs between giant ramps at either end, a natural extension of the pedestrian route. Below, everything is inhabited within a forked plan; students congregate in the heat of the day around fountains, in the cool shade of a tall concrete structure.