23-04-2019

BIG and Goody Clancy Expansion of Isenberg School of Management UMass Amherst

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Architect of Record Goody Clancy,

Laurian Ghinitoiu, Max Touhey,

University,

Metal,

SpazioFMGperl'Architettura,

The Isenberg School of Management - UMass Amherst, one of the most important schools of business in the United States, has a new Business Innovation Hub. The project by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Goody Clancy will be featured in the next event in the Iris Ceramica Group’s Milanese gallery and showroom, SpazioFMGperl'Architettura, opening on May 2: the eighth event in The Architects Series – A documentary on: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group.



BIG and Goody Clancy Expansion of Isenberg School of Management UMass Amherst

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group is featured in the eighth event in The Architects Series, the cultural event format The Plan magazine produces for SpazioFMGperl'Architettura, the Milanese gallery and showroom of Iris Ceramica and FMG Fabbrica Marmi e Graniti, the top brands in the Iris Ceramica Group.
After a one-week break, SpazioFMGperl'Architettura will open again on May 2 at Via Bergognone 2, Milan, Italy to screen the documentary The Architects Series – A documentary on: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group.

In 2015 the architectural studios BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Goody Clancy were appointed to build an expansion on the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, one of the thirty most important schools of economics in the United States. The school’s position of prestige and importance demanded a top-quality project. The client had in fact asked BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Goody Clancy: “for an environment that inspires creativity, communication, innovation and collaboration – a physical space designed to train and prepare students for careers in the 21st century”.
The concept perfectly corresponds to the project implemented by the architects of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and Goody Clancy, and in fact the expansion on the Isenberg School of Management has been renamed the Business Innovation Hub, acknowledging that the new spaces have a highly distinct identity of their own, even if connected with the existing school of economics.
A visual identity underlined by the triangular glass foyer establishing visual and material detachment from the existing construction to continue with the new one. The architects have obtained a curved surface built without curved elements, using thick copper slats laid at different angles of inclination off the vertical and in different positions. Like falling dominos, these elements in apparent motion create a space which can be used as an indoor or outdoor meeting-place and event space for students, faculty and society in general.

The Business Innovation Hub project involved both expansion and partial renovation of the existing building and doubled the amount of space available to users of the school of economics. The architects designed flexible spaces with advanced tools and technologies to respond to the rapidly evolving needs of the student community.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, photo by Laurian Ghinitoiu, Max Touhey.

Name: Isenberg School of Management Business Innovation Hub
Size: 70,000ft2/ 6,500m2
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Client: University of Massachusetts Building Authority
Design Architect: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group big.dk
Architect of Record: Goody Clancy
Collaborators: Richmond So Engineers, Arup, BIG IDEAS, Nitsch, VAV, Towers Golde, Haley & Aldrich, Acentech, HLB, SGH, PEER, WIL-SPEC, VGA, Lerch Bates, LN Consulting, Mohar Designs

BIG – BJARKE INGELS GROUP
Partners-In-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Beat Schenk, Daniel Sundlin
Project Leaders: Yu Inamoto, Pauline Lavie-Luong, Hung Kai Liao 
Team: Alice Cladet, Amina Blacksher, Barbara Stallone, Beat Schenk, Cheyenne Vandevoorde, Daniel Kidd, Davide Maggio, Deborah Campbell, Denys Kozak, Derek Wong, Domenic Schmid, Douglass Alligood, Elena Bresciani, Emily Mohr, Fabian Lorenz, Francesca Portesine, Ibrahim Salman, Jan Leenknegt, Justyna Mydlak, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Kristoffer Negendahl, Ku Hun Chung, Linda Halim, Lucas Hong, Manon Otto, Maria Eugenia Dominguez, Mustafa Khan, Nicolas Gustin, Pei Pei Yang, Peter Lee, Seoyoung Shin, Simon Lee, Terrence Chew, Tianqi Zhang, Tore Banke, Yehezkiel Wiliardy, Yixin Li


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