| Students and faculty of The Swenson Family Hall of Engineering are experiencing a collaborative, immersive and dynamic approach to education in their innovatively designed wing. The design provides opportunities for collaboration, reconfiguration, and blurred lines between teaching and research. The lower level is designed to be a collaborative student space traversed by a gallery or ‘ideation path’ connecting to the existing building. The second floor is composed of labs, study alcoves and research pods where students and faculty collaborate. The third floor is dedicated to faculty creative office suites and meeting rooms.
The Ideation Path:
The ideation path is a wide hallway that bifurcates the lower level of the Engineering school. This gallery path connects the collaborative student spaces, the dean suite and the fabrication labs through an angular walkway covered in a metal mesh ceiling. The path features views into workspaces and instructional spaces through glassy walls and large operable partitions.
The Swiss Knife Element:
One of the intentions for the ‘Ideation Zone’ is that it might morph and transform to accommodate different modes of working and collaborating. In order to allow for future flexibility of work modes and collaboration, we developed a device we call the “Swiss Knife.” This element is a multi-functional pod that conceals folding doors and sliding doors. Its purpose is to provide all the functionality needed to keep the space open or to close it off into two separate rooms that are distinct from the hallway. This allows the space to transform from private instruction to open forum to lounge on a weekly basis. The flexibility and agility of the partition system is key to the success of the “Ideation Zone." The area where students "blue sky" their project ideas or come back to re-think their project ideas.
The Stair:
The inter-connecting stair is on one hand a functional way to travel vertically but is also a visual attractor for social activity. The lower part of the stair is shaped to encourage students and faculty to sit and chat at the confluence of a main circulation pathway and around the corner from the dean’s suite. The stair is made of sculptural wood shapes at the base and perforated metal at the top. It signifies the intersection of craft and technology. At the second level, the guardrails extend up and the ceiling panels extend down to express verticality. The perforated metal guardrails are supported by a steel armature onto which the handrails are fastened.
The Swenson Family Hall of Engineering has transformed the Chapman campus and fulfilled the dean’s vision of creating not only a campus epicenter for innovative thinking but an inclusive social hub where cross-pollination of ideas can occur.
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