NEW FACILITIES will soon be available for architecture students for making their plates.
College of Architecture Dean Rodolfo Ventura said a portion of the UST Publishing House and printing press under the Domus Mariae International Residence would be renovated to make way for the project.
The idea, he said, came after the Miguel de Benavides Library prohibited architecture students from doing their plates inside its reading halls.
“[I]t is unfair for [the students]…[they] do not have the luxury of using the main library so we needed to look for an alternative solution,” Ventura told the Varsitarian.
The “library satellite” will be located at the printing press area, under Domus Mariae and will operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The “studio” will be located in a portion of the UST Publishing House.
The project will provide a working space where students can do their plates and access books, but not the whole collection of architecture-related books in the central library.
“[W]e have big papers, big tables and, in a way, messy. That is our true nature [of work]. So what I requested the library, if they cannot give us that provision…it would be fitting that they provide us some sort of a satellite [library]”, he added.
The college will also launch a studio that will serve as a common space for students in the higher level. Given limited space, the college will “try to make it exclusive” for UST architecture students, for easier monitoring of the facilities.
In December 2018, the project was awarded to a contractor. The Facilities and Management Office facilitated construction and renovation of the spaces.
The blessing of the new facilities will be on Feb 26, the first day of the College of Architecture week.