JKU Campus Linz – LIT Open Innovation Center, Linz

Founded in the 1960s, the Johannes-Kepler-University is one of the first campus universities in Austria and is located far outside of the city center of Linz right on the foot of the pronounced rise of the uplands. An architecture competition won by RIEPL RIEPL ARCHITEKTEN in 2016 strived to develop the University within the existing structure, aiming for more “attractiveness” to compensate the peripheral location.
Being one of a bundle of interventions the LIT Open Innovation Center adds another important and destinct component of urban diversity to the campus. A building offering a variety of options instead of one-dimensional functional predetermination, a marketplace of ideas suffused with light.
The architectonic concept allows to peacfully amalgamate diverse processes like research, education and production underneath one roof. Threedimensionally open sequences of space, predominantly built in wood, create together with abundant use of daylight entering mainly from above an accentuatedly communicative atmosphere that promotes collaborative study and work to the benefit of all.

What makes this project one-of-a-kind?
The LIT – Open Innovation Center is not only a building but a concept, inducing diverse players in and outside of the classical academic structure to work, meet, communicate, explore and exchange ideas. An open space for an open society.