MCI Campus Innsbruck

The competition announced for the new Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) building in Innsbruck, Austria, focuses on how we will learn and teach in the future. One answer is contained in HENN's design, which strengthens the identity of the university with its extraordinary design language and allows various uses and individual adaptations thanks to the flexible building structure.

The construction area is located next to a listed garden complex in the immediate vicinity of Innsbruck's vibrant Old Town. The building edges in HENN's design follow existing street lines, creating a clear cubic structure with a square footprint that fits confidently and at the same time harmoniously into its surroundings. The uniform column grid can clearly be seen in the appearance of the facade, but is softened by incisions and recesses in the building structure. The volume descends from south-east to north-west and impresses with an extraordinary roofscape that references the city's Imperial Gardens. It becomes an integral part of the building architecture and offers students and teaching staff various landscaped plateaus equipped with study and meeting lounges, long tables, as well as differentiated sports and recreation facilities.

A two-storey facade setback on the first floor marks the main entrance and automatically draws pedestrians to the centre of the building. This is where the heart of the MCI is located - a spacious 'town hall'. It directs daylight deep into the building's interior, enabling clear orientation both horizontally and vertically. Four additional small atriums provide the building with sufficient natural light, so that the boundaries between the exterior and interior merge smoothly into one another.