iLAB

Guatemala

The Universidad del Istmo (UNIS), one of the most important educational institutions of Guatemala and of the Central America region.

A little over a decade ago, the university developed a master plan and relocated its main campus from the capital city to a suburb about 45 mins away from the city.

The center core of the university was implemented in 2012, and it currently houses all the programs offered by the university.  As the campus grows, new facilities for the different schools will be built, and the core buildings will be able to house their final functions.

Today, the university is thriving, all the fears prompted by the change of location have disappeared, and looking at expansion is a must to consolidate the new campus and remain competitive in Guatemala and the region.

The schools of architecture and engineering are reaching a point where they can no longer fulfill the pedagogical demands of the students and they are in need of laboratory and production spaces.

The university conducted an internal evaluation of needs with the different schools and decided to take the initiative of implementing a new lab building that could be used by many of the schools.

The new iLAB building will initially house different academic functions and an incubator, meant to connect the university with partners from different industries.  The final use of the building will be for the School of Engineering once the rest of the facilities are built in the full implementation of the master plan.

The initial concept phase was completed in December 2023.  The future stages of the project are scheduled to restart in the near future.

Two schemes were developed: Compact and Courtyard, both with latent potential.