Student Innovation Center, Iowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa | 2020

Architects: substance architecture with KieranTimberlake
Associate Architects: substance architecture
Design Team: James Timberlake David Riz Laurent Hedquist Jason, Ciotti-Niebish Philip Baraldi David, Rariden Cheryl Hu, and Frannie Bower
General Contractor: JE Dunn Construction
Client: Iowa State University
Photographers: Peter Aaron/OTTO

The Student Innovation Center at Iowa State University is a central “maker space” resource serving the University’s nine colleges and over 36,000 students. It supports and symbolizes a shift in pedagogy away from passive learning toward hands-on, interactive instruction, and recognizes the central role “making” has in innovation across disciplines.

The Student Innovation Center (SIC), designed in collaboration with KieranTimberlake Architects, is a centralized resource serving all nine colleges that comprise Iowa State University (ISU).

Like the Library and the Memorial Union, the SIC was conceived as a University-wide facility that would allow each college to explore the role “making” plays in innovation within their individual disciplines.

The building is open to all 36,000+ students at ISU and represents a shift in campus-wide pedagogy away from traditional passive learning toward a hands-on, interactive teaching model.

The 140,000 square foot building has no direct precedent nationwide and required a rigorous, probative programming process that engaged the University Administration, Faculty, Student Groups, and Students to determine what the building should be. It became apparent early in this process that, while the Design College and Engineering College fundamentally understood “making” as central to learning, the other seven Colleges were unsure how they would use this type of facility.

A series of focus groups resulted in each College identifying what their students “make” (from music to food to business plans) and what spaces and equipment would facilitate these activities. The building becomes a container that is filled with an evolving set of “maker” spaces ranging from metal, wood, and composite fabrication shops, to a test kitchen, café, and retail outlet, to a rooftop garden and a mock “trading floor”.

Moreover, innovative teaching formats are supported with flexible, technology-enabled classrooms in unique formats found nowhere else on campus. Finally, gallery space was included to display the results of “making” campus-wide.

The SIC’s program is intended to evolve. The simple, cast-in-place concrete structure creates a series of flexible, lose-fit, loft-like spaces that can be reconfigured over time.

The interior finishes are rough, not precious, and the systems are exposed to accommodate this necessary change.

The building’s exterior, however, is fixed. It is wrapped in undulating glass skin that appears to move around the form. These undulations are the result of solar analysis and reduce the building’s direct solar heat gain while providing panoramic views out to the surrounding campus and inward to a central courtyard.