IIT Innovation Center
Steve Hall
Product Spec Sheet

ElementBrandProduct Name
Office furniture, Reception furniture, Chairs, TablesSteelcase
TablesKristalia
Tribune stair cushionsSDC lab
ETFE SubcontractorVector Foiltec
Plastic LaminateFormica Group
GlassGuardian Glass

Product Spec Sheet
Office furniture, Reception furniture, Chairs, Tables
Tables
Tribune stair cushions
by SDC lab
ETFE Subcontractor
Plastic Laminate
Glass

IIT Innovation Center (Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship)

John Ronan Architects as Architects

The Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute ofTechnology is the first new academic building at IIT in over forty years. The Kaplan Institute is devoted to fostering collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship between IIT’s students, faculty, alumni and partners and the building will host a variety of collaboration spaces for university’s project-based experiences, contain state-of-the art prototyping and fabrication facilities, and serve as the new home for IIT’s Institute of Design.

 

The horizontal, open and light-filled building is designed to encourage creative encounters between students and faculty across disciplines. Located in the heart of IIT’s historic Mies campus, the building draws students and faculty in from all directions. Conceived as a hybrid of campus space and building, the design is organized around two open-air courtyards through which visitors enter the building, and which serve as collision nodes for chance meetings and information exchange across departments. These two-story glazed courtyards bring natural light deep into the floor plate, creating a spacious, airy and light filled interior and a continuous connection with nature.

 

The design of the Innovation Center is innovative in its own right, and forward-thinking in its approach to sustainability. The second floor of the building, which cantilevers over the ground floor to provide sun shading, is enclosed in a dynamic façade of ETFE foil cushions which can vary the amount of solar energy entering the building through sophisticated pneumatics. The ETFE foil is 1% the weight of glass and gives the building a light, cloud-like appearance.

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