Campus – Venue Building
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Real project, real client
Come to our studio and experience a real design process!
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Venue Building
A major IT company is developing its new Headquarters Campus on the site of a former military hospital, located at the threshold between the city and the protected landscape of Kamzík mountain. The campus will accommodate more than 1,000 employees and integrate housing, commercial spaces, venues for events, and sports facilities.
This studio is based on a real development project: the ESET Campus in Bratislava.
Students will design the Venue Building – a multifunctional conference and event hall forming part of the campus masterplan. The Venue is intended as a highly flexible public-facing building capable of hosting a wide range of events:
conferences and lectures
concerts and musical performances
TED-style talks
corporate events
hybrid cultural / educational programs
The project reflects real architectural, technical, and operational requirements typical of contemporary high-end mixed-use developments.
Students are expected to work with realistic constraints, capacities, and technical considerations.
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Design Task
Design a multifunctional Venue building within the ESET Campus that can accommodate:
Audience capacities (indicative):
Fixed seating: approx. 260 people
Retractable seating: up to approx. 435 people
Open standing event: up to approx. 650 people
The main hall should allow:
seated and standing configurations
retractable / movable audience seating
rapid reconfiguration between event modes
Your architectural proposal must reflect program requirements and techmical & performance considerations
Design Objectives
The Venue should:
act as a representative gateway building within the campus
express flexibility and openness
establish a strong relationship between interior and exterior
support multiple event typologies without losing architectural clarity
allow future adaptation and expansion
The building is expected to function both as:
an internal campus facility
a public-facing cultural venue
Key Themes to Address
flexibility vs. architectural identity
public vs. backstage separation
adaptability over time
relationship to landscape and exterior spaces
atmosphere and spatial experience
realism of operation
Important Note
This assignment reflects a real project scenario with realistic programmatic, spatial, and operational demands. Students are encouraged to approach the task professionally and critically, balancing architectural ambition with functional responsibility.
Design Process
During the design process, Matthew — thanks to the ESET initiative — will on a monthly basis provide an international perspective on different aspects of architecture, sharing experience from projects around the world.
Jan, Andrej, Michal, and Peter from INFLOW will on a weekly basis guide you in understanding the brief and developing concepts that resonate with real clients. They will help you build a strong and successful narrative for your project.
So please send us your portfolio at office@inflow.sk, and let’s start the discussion on how to engage with this exciting project.
Come and meet us at our studio in room 046.
