The new Design and Innovation Building serves as a campus hub for multidisciplinary instruction and research in design, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The 70,000 square foot instructional and laboratory space is shared across departments. Each floor of the building serves a step in the design process: Ideation, Prototyping, Iteration, Implementation.
The building provides dedicated workspaces for design and research projects supported by faculty and graduate student offices, collaborative open work areas, and a range of meeting rooms. Generous skylights and floor openings bring natural daylight deep into the building, and collaboration spaces are open to the circulation spine, but out of the main path, arranged on a gradient from more active to quiet.
Located directly adjacent to the new Pepper Canyon Light Rail Transit Station and a planned outdoor amphitheater, The architectural expression of the new building provides an important first impression of the campus, reflecting the tradition of forward-thinking architecture at UCSD while highlighting the unique and dynamic work within.
The ground floor houses "the basement" - an entrepreneurship incubator, which features a flexible space divided by operable glass partitions. The second floor is focused on making, with large shop spaces waiting for equipment. This suite of prototyping labs and fabrication shops, allows projects to be tested while fostering a culture of making, in a bright space that opens up to the adjacent terrace with large vertical lifting doors. On the third floor, the Design Lab focuses on major societal issues, such as large-scale education, automation, healthcare, and community. The collaboration hub on the top floor provides a light-fill space for informal meetings and discussions.
The rooms are designed to provide a flexible framework for use over time, with the knowledge that pedagogy will change in a way that designers cannot anticipate. Active collaboration spaces, large meeting rooms, cafés, and social hubs at all 4 levels connected by an open interior stair to promote mobility and wellness.
