Thunderbird School of Global Management

Dan J on June 19, 2024

The new ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management creates a physical and virtual Hub for Global Leadership.   The project builds on the founding mission of the Thunderbird School to support global understanding and peace through dialogue and collaboration. A gateway identity in downtown Phoenix encourages ASU’s leadership in cross-disciplinary research and community engagement with adjacent professional schools, civic institutions and industry partners.

The project balances an array of technology enhanced research, study and collaboration spaces. Programs, spaces, materials, art and wayfinding are designed to welcome and represent world cultures.

The technology enhanced innovation spaces span all scales of collaboration:

  • the Global Forum is a 24/7 physical and virtual Hub linking students and Centers worldwide.
  • the Innovation Center provides immersive AR and VR research and learning.
  • Virtual Reality Suites prepare students for global fieldwork.
  • the Situation Room allows teams to model real time global challenges and solutions.
  • advanced technology supports synchronous and asynchronous collaboration and innovation throughout the building.

In a unique collaboration, Moore Ruble Yudell partnered with the Jones Studio of Phoenix to create a comprehensive design partnership. With our deep experience in world class professional schools and the Jones Studio’s profound understanding of the cultural and climatic environment of the region, this seamless team was able to understand and respond to the unique mission of the new ASU Thunderbird School.

Asia School of Business

Dan J on June 19, 2024

The Asia School of Business (ASB) was created through a partnership of Bank Negra Malaysia and the MIT Sloan School of Management. The school was established to address the growing business opportunities within Southeast Asia and the emerging world, ASB’s innovative Action Learning curriculum immerses students in multicultural business environments in Asia and around the globe.

The iconic new campus takes maximum advantage of its hillside site in central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city. Inspired by the traditional Malaysian “Kampung” (village), the academic building and residential village are organized along a curving landscaped path protected by covered walkways which also connect to the adjacent National Financial Center.

The Academic building’s classrooms, makerspaces, dining, faculty offices, and amphitheater activate the five-level atrium. Teaching spaces are reimagined as flexible, loft-like labs, functioning as adaptable learning environments for experimentation and collaboration. The makerspaces feature cutting-edge technology to serve the evolving, high tech demands of business today.

The design of the academic building’s exterior metal and glass panels are inspired by the artistic heritage of Malaysian Songket textile patterns, whose geometries are reinterpreted using parametric design and digital CNC manufacturing. Its curving roof with clerestory and skylights temper the tropical sun and filter daylight.

Lower Sproul Redevelopment & MLK Building

Dan J on February 19, 2024

The Lower Sproul Redevelopment Project called for recasting the existing facilities at Lower Sproul Plaza into a state-of-the-art campus center. The project is comprised of a new multiuse building for student organizations (replacing an existing facility), the renovation and expansion of the MLK Student Union, an improved student resource center, and a new plaza wired for a range of uses. Additionally, key connections to the campus and city are opened up, providing access to a new transportation hub and to downtown Berkeley.

The design team approached the project as an opportunity to celebrate the programmatic activities of student life. Based on careful observation and mapping of how students migrate through public space, the team shaped a movement framework that enables the most effective community-making. Shaping the architecture, open spaces, and programmatic placements in response to this analysis invites new patterns of use that are now woven into the campus and city fabric.

Given the transparency of the buildings now surrounding the plaza, the activities within the buildings and on the plaza become mutually reinforcing. Students are simultaneously drawn outside to see and participate in a performance, and inside to use a wide range of programs and amenities.

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