Tall, Green, and Global: 10 of the Most Innovative Architecture Projects of 2016

At the University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Center, you can code an app, build a robot, or sequence DNA. An all-purpose research and entrepreneurship hub, it’s accessible to both students and outside groups. Its labs and machine-fabrication workshops give second life to an old brick DuPont paint-research facility—a clever example of adaptive reuse. The north façade is made up of triangular steel and glass shards that frame a set of stadium-style stair seating for aspiring TED Talk-ers. ‘Many people talk about disruption, but most innovation comes out of evolution,’ says HWKN’s Matthias Hollwich. ‘You take ideas and regenerate them with incredible new properties that lead into the future, and that’s what we did with the building.’