German-Thai Chamber of Commerce Dual Vocational School is a new model of vocational education. The unique characteristic that gives students opportunity to explore the real industrial manufacturing system helps widen student’s perspectives and gives them better understandings. The campus is located in Makham Khu district, Rayong province, which can be easily commuted to the main two industrial estates that students will be travelling daily. The campus consists of three main section, Educational Facilities, Dormitories and Student Support Facilities.
The core idea of the design is to enhance interaction between users by creating an ‘Intensive Learning Environment’ which allows users, students and staffs, to exchange knowledge in multiple disciplines. By exchanging knowledge without boundaries , helps improve students to understand the big picture of the industrial system. Since the students will be spending so much time in the campus, enhancing interaction will also create bonds between them.
The daily routine of the students in the campus is scheduled, commuting between Dormitories Section and Educational Section. The Educational Facilities Section includes lecture rooms and technical workshop, which has specific requirements such as natural ventilation, precise dimensions of the machine and efficient configuration. The Dormitories Section is split into two 7-storey buildings due to the urban laws. By stacking the dormitory vertically allows it to access to view and natural ventilation. By locating two main destinations of the students in both ends of the site, creates a campus plaza space between them ,which will be responsible for other routines such as dining, chilling or playing sports. This campus plaza is designed to encourage students in the campus to mingle and interact with others. Since all buildings are compactly located in the center of the site, the buildings can be expanded in both directions and increase up to 50% capacity.
The campus plaza can be accessed freely through both Educational Facilities and Dormitory corridors. The 1st and 2nd floor of the dormitory buildings is reserved for student support sections, such as common area, library or computer rooms. The auditorium hall is placed in the end of the plaza and is connected to the shuttle bus stop ,where students commute to the industrial estate, and to the outdoor yard. The administration building is located in the very front of the campus to secure the campus from outsiders.
Every section of the campus is designed to be connected either visually or physically together. The students in corners can be seen and interact with. Observing other student gives them better understandings in other majors and also improves their skills.
The Educational Facilities Building includes 9 20-students lecture rooms and a single mechanical workshop. The lecture room is located on the second floor of the building, allowing the students to observe the activities in the workshop below. The workshop consists of 190 machine stations, each one with specific dimension, align in linear configuration. The partitions of the workshop is aluminum louvres which allow the wind to ventilate naturally. The roofing of the workshop are both opaque and transparent. The transparent metal sheet roofing brings in the natural light, which will be diffused by the aluminum shading device to avoid direct sunlight and heat.
The Campus Plaza is located in the very heart of the campus and is divided into three main zones; the canteen, multipurpose recreation and game court, each one with their own purposes. The campus court is covered by widespan metal structure with pixelated metal sheet roofing. The plaza is totally natural ventilated and is partially covered in green area.
The dormitory consists of 20 32-student residential units. Each one with one indoor common room, outdoor terrace, pantry, shared bathrooms and laundry. A residential unit includes 8 bedrooms, each one with 4 students with 2 bunkbeds, 4 workstation and a private terrace.
