Office Design Grows Up

Is innovation something that can be designed? The architects at HWKN, the firm behind the Pennovation Center at the University of Pennsylvania, think so. By constructing the space to foster social interaction (the idea being that innovative ideas happen when people who normally wouldn’t talk put their heads together), retaining a raw aesthetic, and adding hyper-modern interventions into an old building, HWKN’s principal Matthias Hollwich thinks he achieved success. ‘If you have to drill into the wall, be my guest and do it,’ he says. ‘The architecture needs to be raw and solid so manipulations can be done without hesitation. Idea creation needs to overrule architectural preciousness.’