Innsbruck, Austria
European Prize for Architecture laureates Henning Larsen Architects and landscape architects Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl have been selected to design a 35,000-square-meter university campus that will house Management Center Innsbruck in Innsbruck’s city center.
“We found a wealth of inspiration in the landscapes and geography of Tirol,” explained Henning Larsen Architects Associate Design Director Lucas Ziegler.”
“Especially in the way changing light alters the way you see the mountains throughout the day.”
The façade is an interpretation of this–the depth, verticality, and angularity of the façade give the building an appearance that changes throughout the day and the seasons.”
“In learning projects today, there’s much less emphasis on the traditional model of dedicated classrooms connected by empty corridors–more fluid spaces reflect a better understanding of how people actually learn and process new information,” states Ziegler.
“We are extremely pleased that we were able to win the competition for the new MCI campus with our design. It stands for openness, identity, communication, and design excellence,” says Andreas Schulting, Managing Director of Henning Larsen’s Munich office.
“We will bring our expertise in university construction from more than 60 years to this project and develop it further together with MCI,” Schulting adds.
“Our design not only supports the variety of ways people learn but is also an inviting place for people to meet and stay.”
Henning Larsen Architects’ new structure, located next to the SoWi University and the Innsbrucker Hofgarten, will craft a unified campus for MCI for the first time in the school’s history.
Bordered by the city to the south and east and by the historical Hofgarten to the north and west, and the Alps all around, the building is designed to have no back or front.
Multi-story entries are carved into each façade to break the scale of the building in relation to its surroundings.
These pockets are, in turn, planted with gardens to match the identity of their neighbor such as the mountain-facing north entry is lush with alpine flowers and the southern city-facing entry is an urban terrace.
Classrooms and lecture halls are placed at the outer edge of the ground level, framing a fluid interior space with a large community stair in the center that not only links the three levels of “learning” spaces but also serves as a community space itself.
These learning floors are designed to be open and flexible, with nearly as much “unprogrammed” space for students to study, socialize, and rest as there is actual classroom space.
The building’s upper floors are divided into two sections, one containing offices for MCI faculty, administration, and students, the other containing laboratories and research spaces.
The design is dense and highly efficient, with four cores that serve not just as vertical circulation, but also as social hubs within the large floorplates
Project: Management Center Innsbruck (MCI)
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Associate Design Director: Lucas Ziegler
Managing Director: Andreas Schulting
Landscape Architects: Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl
Environmental Engineers: Transsolar
Drawings: Henning Larsen Architects
