Treanor Architects recently won a world-wide competition to design a 1,200-bed, environmentally sustainable student-life housing complex for Education City in Doha, Qatar. Education City is a 2,500 acre campus located on the outskirts of Doha, which hosts branch campuses of some of the world’s leading universities.

The main objective in the winning design was to create an experience linked to a living environment where students can thrive personally, socially, spiritually and academically; creating a community that expresses the idea of unity and connectedness. These goals are expressed architecturally through the elements of geometry, rhythm and light.

The inspiration for the design is a traditional Islamic town’s organization. The village is planned from the inside out, placing primary importance on the home. The home is situated on a street (floor) and the streets make up the neighborhood (building) that enclose a traditional private courtyard. Five neighborhoods are unified by a village street, which organically flows around a central plaza and culminates at the heart of the community: the commons building.

The design intends to achieve Platinum LEED Certification with zero waste, creating a self-sufficient community. The complexes will maximize efficiency of energy and water use through numerable sustainable features like wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and a biomass wall filtering grey water.

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