BIG adds Business Innovation Hub to Massachusetts university
![A glass building featuring copper-clad pillar roof with slant detail. Grey concrete floor are the entrance way towards the building. black tall street lamps and grey sitting blocks](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/R2fGGpGQiGiWegPZJU5Kzg-415-80.jpg)
A cascading array of copper pillars is the first thing students will see when they visit the new Business Innovation Hub at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with architect of record Goody Clancy, the new 6,500 sq m facility is an extension to the Isenberg School of Management, which offers space for 5,000 students and 150 staff.
Falling like dominoes, the pillars undulate around the building, looping round to join the existing (1964) Isenberg School of Management building behind, framing an internal courtyard in the process. Much like the Statue of the Liberty, the copper-clad pillars will gradually oxidise over time after being exposed, changing colour to form a patina.
According to BIG founder and creative director, Bjarke Ingels, the pillars are a ‘generous invitation' from the adjacent Haigis Mall to an area inside the new building known as the Learning Commons. Beyond the triangular glass entrance, light pours into a triple-height atrium, with shadows from the pillars being cast across the foyer. Students will first encounter the aforementioned 450 sq m Learning Commons area — a social hub which will host guest speakers, ceremonies, banquets and career fairs.
The new facility sits at the heart of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The remaining first and second floors link directly with the adjacent building and here, innovation labs, advising spaces and faculty offices, which will be used by both staff and students, can be found. Furthermore, the Chase Career Centre (incorporated into the new building) offers 15 new interview rooms, along with new conference rooms and breakout areas, which are dispersed throughout.
Spaces inside have been designed to facilitate student interactivity, fostering teamwork and chance encounters by employing soft chairs in corridors, benches on the building’s main stairway and moveable classroom chairs, which can be used for lectures or group work.
This collaborative ethos continues outside to a circular courtyard with a garden and stone benches. ‘The mall and the courtyard – inside and outside form a forum for the students, the faculty and the profession to meet, mingle and mix society and academia,' says Ingels. Pathways leading off that connect back to the main Isenberg School of Management campus, travelling under two new, copper-clad bridges, which connect the new and old buildings above.
BIG collaborated with local firm Goody Clancy, who was Architect of Record.
The building adds 6500 sq m of study and social spaces to the overall campus.
The project invloved an expansion and the partial renovation of the Isenberg School of Management.
The spaces are designed to foster collaboration, interaction and engagement.
The extra space was much needed to accomodate the growing needs of the school.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the BIG website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published