USTC Business School

AT A GLANCE

The largest terracotta façade of its kind in China, built from repeatable units that lower embodied carbon

Modular, adaptable spaces designed to flex for decades

An innovation accelerator linking academia and business 

USTC Business School sits alongside the University of Science and Technology of China, at the edge of the city of Hefei’s high-tech enterprise district. It’s designed to bridge the university’s research with the business world, a place where scientific breakthroughs can find their way into the market, and where business leaders study alongside academics.

Our winning competition design, developed with Tianjin University Research Institute of Architectural Design and Urban Planning (AATU), is built around a simple concept: the best ideas rarely happen alone. Shared spaces and a central courtyard anchor the design, drawing people out of their departments and into communal spaces where informal, unplanned exchange can happen — turning corridors and breakout areas into places of discovery, not just movement.

It’s this kind of everyday collaboration that helps a place like USTC do what it does best: turn scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact, and make itself a place investors and top talent want to be part of.

THE LARGEST TERRACOTTA FACADE OF ITS KIND IN CHINA

A red terracotta façade wraps the school, spanning more than 40,000 metres in length — the longest application of the material on any project in China. Terracotta was chosen as the building’s signature material for its efficiency: a highly modular system, simple to produce and quick to construct. Its repeatable units shortened the supply chain, lowered the project’s embodied carbon, and simplified quality control at scale — and made it, by the manufacturer’s own account, one of their most efficient production runs to date. That same modular thinking carries through to the classrooms, built on a flexible structural grid that can adapt as teaching needs evolve.

WHERE THE CAMPUS, THE PARK AND THE CITY ALL MEET

This isn’t a typical campus building, so it doesn’t behave like one. Conceived as an interconnected structure floating over landscaped grounds, the building’s transparent glass ground floor opens from every direction, connecting campus, park and city avenue alike, while blurring where the city ends and the building begins.

Inside, a public auditorium anchors that openness, built for a school with genuine ambitions to bring community, students, business, science and nature together.