INSEAD-USA Satellite-Concept
for
role
status
year
GSA
Principal
Programming/Prototype
2016
INSEAD is the top-rated business schools in Europe with a global footprint maintaining active campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi in addition to the founding location in Fontainebleau just south of Paris. It’s identity as a business school had become embodied in its tagline “The Business School for the World”.
Despite its global reach and its frequent status as one of the top 10 business schools in the world sharing that position with many of the Ivies, it had never established a foothold in the US market and so has failed to attract US students. As part of a long-term development plan, the school was investigating two potential locations, San Francisco with its proximity to Silicon Valley and New York City as a rising tech hub in the states. For this first step, it was considering the campus to be a satellite facility that would offer executive programs but as well programs for MBAs and EMBAs. There was a desire for the institute to gain exposure to those ecosystems but as well to tap into the potential student population associated with the business ecosystem
The first phase of the project was to dedicated to determining the minimal necessary program elements to execute this mission. Interviews were carried out with key stakeholders; professors, administrators, deans and former and prospective students. Once the architectural program was established and verified by the client team, a physical prototype was developed to verify and evolve the program. This exercise evaluated emerging forms of organizing space for business education, in specific the move toward small group learning as opposed to the classical format of the large lecture format.
The resulting protype incorporates an open amphi, centrally located that would be shared by the three flat class rooms. The immediately adjacent flat classroom has two large sliding doors which when open allows the amphi to become incorporated thus creating a large event space. When not used for teaching, the open central location makes it ideal as an spill-out social space for informal gatherings and hanging out.
