New Haven, CT – Students at the University of New Haven now have access to a state-of-the-art, technology-enhanced academic building designed to foster the type of inspired collaboration that is an increasingly important component of workflow in high-tech and other market sectors.
Designed by Svigals + Partners, the just-opened Bergami Center for Science, Technology & Innovation serves as a central hub of interdisciplinary academic and social activity for students and faculty.
“Bergami Center was conceived as a place that would stimulate the kind of productive, collaborative interaction currently leading to breakthrough thinking in institutional, corporate and scientific settings,” says Julia McFadden, AIA, ALEP, associate principal with Svigals + Partners.
The 45,500sf, three-story innovation hub is organized around an artful, airy central atrium where students, faculty and administrators can congregate informally for conversations and breakout ideation sessions.
The Svigals design team engaged with University of New Haven faculty in visioning workshops to develop the programming, aiming specifically to cultivate three essential skills: working collaboratively, making prototypes through rapid interaction and development, and the ability to communicate ideas.
To that end, the Bergami Center features collaborative classrooms, huddle spaces, a teaching auditorium that functions as a cinema, a live broadcast studio, and a makerspace with a wood shop, 3D printers, and CNC cutters. The building complex is also equipped with an esports management teaching, training and varsity-level competition venue, and a cafe.
Thematic installations were incorporated throughout the building, evoking the process by which ideas and hypotheses evolve from concepts to experiments to solutions.
“The university’s leaders understand that their students need to be prepared for life after college,” says McFadden. “Bergami Center combines advanced technology with the collaborative modes that produce transformative thinking, offering students a place to acquire both the skills and the competitive edge they will need.”