Sasaki was commissioned to design a dynamic Innovation Center that fosters collaboration, knowledge exchange, and interdisciplinary thinking among students, local industries, and regional institutions. The design features a social architecture with an open terrace, multi-level atrium, and collaborative spaces at its core, encouraging visitors to experience the building through multiple pathways.
Located in the heart of the campus, opposite the new student life, entertainment, and health center, the Lima University Engineering Innovation Center integrates a network of engineering hubs linked to Peru’s emerging industries. This five-story complex interweaves collaborative areas, classrooms, and entrepreneurship hubs including presentation spaces, workshops for graduate and undergraduate students, multi-purpose auditoriums, and flexible workspaces for resident companies.
The Innovation Center represents a new university-industry collaboration model, marking the transition from traditional engineering education to applied research in emerging technologies. By bringing together diverse departments under one roof, the building showcases student projects, enterprise-sponsored research, digital simulation, prototyping, and project-based learning across contemporary engineering fields.
Situated at the edge of a redesigned plaza featuring large planter boxes and dining terraces, the center welcomes students and professionals into a spacious atrium surrounded by stairs, collaborative zones, and academic hubs. The ground level houses the university’s new Robotics and Prototyping Center, equipped with advanced multimedia labs that open onto public spaces including a large circular theater-style seating area. Additionally, the Sustainable Development Center and main manufacturing studios are located on this floor.
The second floor accommodates laboratories dedicated to artificial intelligence and computational science, while the third floor hosts a Textile Innovation Center. From here, students can step out into a shaded courtyard featuring additional circular theater seating and enjoy views of the plaza and nearby student life and entertainment center.
The fourth floor includes a Food Innovation Laboratory with its own café, opening directly onto a public rooftop space. This rooftop serves as a collaborative area for students, faculty, visitors, and researchers beneath an extensive array of solar panels. The rooftop offers panoramic views of the campus, surrounding mountains, and the city of Lima. It also features a large accessible terrace with group seating areas protected by continuous photovoltaic trellises. Native vegetation planted around the pergola seamlessly connects the building with its landscape. Additionally, the mechanical roof area doubles as a drone launch platform for university engineering projects.
The building employs a mixed-mode ventilation strategy, utilizing natural ventilation in transitional zones and mechanical ventilation in workspaces. Faculty offices and technical support areas are integrated within laboratory suites to foster maximum interaction among students, faculty, and researchers.
The Innovation Center’s undulating floor lines, inspired by the sun’s path around the building, create shaded outdoor areas surrounded by a double-layer glass curtain wall, protected by continuous aluminum rod screens. This highly transparent façade maximizes spatial openness, strengthening connections between laboratories, classrooms, and visitors.
Sasaki’s design for the Lima University campus includes this Innovation Center as one of four primary buildings within the master plan. The Engineering Innovation Center is expected to guide the university’s growth and development over the next two decades, providing a physical and strategic framework for campus renewal and expansion.
It establishes project guidelines and an implementation plan to optimize existing facilities and support the development of new buildings, infrastructure, and landscapes.
Project Information
Architect: Sasaki
Area: 92,000 ft²
Project Year: 2023
Photographers: Azar Cuadros, Renzo Rebagliati
Manufacturers: Hunter Douglas, Crestron, Current, Exlabesa, Forbo, Fundermax, STACBOND, Swisspearl, TVITEC, UNICON
Main Responsible Person: Pablo Savid
Project Architect and Manager: Antonio Furukawa
Interior Design: Jessica Korthuis
Landscape Design: Mauricio Gomez
Architectural Design Team: Amrit Pilo, Robert Sugar, Yasmin Maura
Main Contractor: CosAPI
Structural Engineers: GCAQ, Studio NYL
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Design: AT Consultores
Water Supply and Drainage Engineer: Equipo G
Sustainable Development Consultant: SUMAC
Laboratory Consultant: Flores Valles
Lighting Consultant: LPLED
Location: Lima, Peru
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