Welcome to the Future
New HBS classroom “hives” and the Harvard Innovation Lab thrust students into a bold experiment in learning and collaborative work.
Batten Hall, on Western Avenue, is the totally renovated and redesigned building formerly occupied by the PBS television station WGBH. Batten Hall’s top two floors, reserved for HBS, are devoted to 10 curved, modular learning spaces (called “hives”) and other areas created with team exercises and creativity in mind. These spaces are designed to enable and facilitate HBS’s new required FIELD course, which focuses on intensive small-group exercises and team dynamics, activity not well-suited for Aldrich-style amphitheater classrooms. On the building’s first floor is the Harvard Innovation Lab (“i-lab”). “The i-lab is a University-wide resource for all Harvard students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation,” explains i-lab director Gordon Jones.
Used daily for discussion groups and exercises, the hives (above is the extra-large “superhive”) have furniture that can easily be reconfigured (as in the rendering below of Batten’s second floor) to accommodate large group discussions or small-team collaborations, with the professor presiding from the center of the oval classroom. Each hive is slightly different in design or capability, and over time, the most effective aspects will be adopted for all. “Perhaps the most fundamental change is that, whereas Aldrich is a half circle, we wanted to create a whole circle,” says MBA Program Chair Professor Youngme Moon.
Photo by Neal Hamberg
Managed by HBS Operations, the $25 million conversion of the 1960s-era WGBH building into Batten Hall was completed in less than a year. The first floor i-lab, which will also sponsor programs for community entrepreneurs and small businesses, measures some 28,500 square feet. The second- and third-floor hives and meeting spaces occupy 26,600 square feet and 19,800 square feet, respectively.
Photo by Anton Grassl/Esto
The structure of the building was of paramount importance to the planners. All architectural details, the open and private meeting spaces, and even the tools to facilitate learning (such as multimedia technology and movable furniture) were designed to create an environment that appeals to students and produces a special kind of energy.
Photo by Susan Young
“We’re trying to encourage a very different kind of pedagogy in which the stakes are even higher for the students,” says Youngme Moon. That means extensive and intensive classroom interaction among students and faculty alike, as seen here with Professor of Management Practice Clayton Rose.
Photo by Neal Hamberg
The highly configurable hives and other areas employ state-of-the-art computer and video technology to enhance learning. Moreover, the building’s carefully crafted lighting, design, and music encourage an outside-the-box mind-set. All these features combine to stimulate the flow and capture of ideas and inspiration.
Bottom left rendering courtesy Shepley Bulfinch. Others courtesy Architects of Group Genius
Your Comments
I am delighted to see the advent of the hives. The case study theaters in Aldrich Hall are set up for regimentation, with the faculty member center stage. The hives are made for collaboration, an acknowledgement that learning is social.
Yes. I agree with Jay. I have, of course, been both a student and also a member of the faculty for a number of years. The old classroom was most useful for one main purpose, discussion method teaching, and one lesser purpose, presentations and talks. For various reasons, I don't see the older forum design fading out of use. For one thing, the sloped design gives everyone a clear-sighted view of everyone else in the room. The settings are more intimate for sections of up to 102 students. The round setting has significant disadvantages for teaching in that a good portion of the audience is at the instructor's back. The art of discussion-method teaching is too subtle, as the late great C. Roland Christensen showed all of us, that a discussion leader needs to be able to see everyone in the room and vice versa. That said, bravo for the new design.
Having worked as a consultant with executives and managers in 30 countries, it is terrific to see this transformation space, which will reflect in the ability of Harvard MBAs to be effective team members and leaders. Bravo.