On the site of a former mine (Zeche Zollverrein XII) in Essen, Germany, a building has been designed to house the Faculty of Art and Design for the local university, in combination with 236 housing units for students. Directly relating the slender new-build to the relics of the industrial past and the artificial nature is the view to be had from it. Ascending and descending the stairs has therefore been staged to tie in with the dramatic prospect of the industrial landscape, as has the orientiation of dwellings. Movement inside the housing units is effected by stairs which lead down through a narrow fissure to the facade. Visible through storey-height windows, the landscape spreads out before the building's inhabitants. The sculptural building drinks in the imposing scale of the mine complex and the landscape ingredients of the site, amongst which is a slagheap transformed into a sculpture park. Public functions inside the building - library, auditorium, canteen and most importantly studios - assemble along a route that twists upwards in a long loop through the building. The housing units together present a tightly-packed mass though with the route of public function scooped out of it in places. It is in these hollows in the residential structure that the communal living-spaces and the university's public functions enjoy a spatial rapport. In its combination of introverted dwelling units and freely accessible studios, this building makes for an inspiring climate to live in. Institution: TU Eindhoven Tutors: Bert Dirrix, Jan Westra, Lex Kerssemakers & Wil Thijssen Specialization: architecture