Innovation By Design

Haworth’s sphere of activity is broad and extends to education at all levels. In particular, the manufacturer has partnered with community colleges and state schools such as Clemson University, where a new tech hub blends agility with transparency to create a hotbed of campus activity.

- Deane Madsen

The pulsing, technological heart of the Clemson University campus in South Carolina is the Watt Family Innovation Center. Haworth’s Organic Workspace strategy was instrumental in making the 70,000-square-foot facility into the physical manifestation of Clemson’s 2020 Road Map, the school’s long-term strategic planning initiative, to become one of the nation’s top 20 public universities. With its emphasis on adaptability and choice, the design attracts collaborators, promotes innovation, and stimulates creative inquiry.

The team at Perkins+Will was tasked with making the Watt Center “a place where innovation was on display,” says project architect Cathy Bunn. Extensive glazing and partitions achieve a level of transparency that allows the center’s varied goings-on— such as the wizardry conjured in its signature, state-of-the-art makerspace—to be highly visible, both within the building and from the campus beyond.