HIDA Living/Learning Community

By blending spaces for living, learning, dining, and making, the tailor-designed building offers opportunities for both artistic exploration and social growth. The design is rooted in the notions of porosity and activation, which serve as foundational elements of the project.

The massing of the buildings combines a strong urban edge with a large campus-facing portal leading to an internal activated plaza, which serves as a central nexus for the mixed-use program. A dynamic lilac ceiling plane weaves together the various outdoor and indoor program elements, creating a fluid and engaging user experience through the site and buildings.

Entering the residence hall from the plaza, a lobby gallery space adorned with student work sets the stage for a living/learning community in support of the arts. An adaptable, centralized studio with movable furniture is surrounded by a series of enclosed workrooms. The connection to the outdoors remains uninterrupted through the floor-to-ceiling glazing, which creates a seamless blend between inside and outside. Moving upward, the residence hall comprises 820 beds organized into semi-suites, punctuated by communal spaces including two-story lounges, where spaces more social in nature, such as shared kitchens, coexist with quieter areas dedicated to focus and study.

Extending from the plaza towards campus is an 11,000-sf structure for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. The building stands as an artistic haven, housing a dance studio, stop-motion studio, and a printing and paper-making studio and garden. Tucked under the mass of the building, a 350-seat dining hall along with a 100-person multipurpose room completes the mixed-use program, offering a variety of venues and seating areas beneath a large sculptural mesh chandelier installation.