ESET Campus, designed by BIG, is the European AI and Cybersecurity Hub in Bratislava. Representing a “tech neighborhood,” the project consists of multiple buildings among the headquarters for Slovak internet security company ESET. 12 building units for the AI and cybersecurity campus are designed around the central courtyard and visually connected with their undulating roofs that are covered with solar panels.
Alongside BIG, the ESET Campus project was designed in collaboration with the Slovak architecture studios Inflow and Pantograph, as well as the engineering studios Buro Happold and Arup. The 55,000-square-meter development is designed to be entirely electricity-powered. Located in the forested nature site, the project aimed to dissolve into an urban village with public paths and urban squares rather than a single hermetic entity. “Together with the adjacent university, the ESET Campus is set to spark the formation of Bratislava’s new innovation district,” said the founder of the BIG, Bjarke Ingels.
The project is located 10 minutes away from the city center and replaces a former military hospital with a new campus for ESET. The design includes a spatial hierarchy: The buildings on the outer perimeter contain public spaces, while the four interior structures are dedicated to the company’s activities. On the northwest side, the ESET Campus opens to the park, containing a series of spaces for recreation and interaction that double as outdoor working areas.
The courtyard is meant to be the focal point for the local community, offering retail, educational, sports, and cultural spaces. Each of the four ESET headquarters buildings has a central atrium with skylights, and the main lobby features a main staircase surrounded by social spaces and biophilic design elements. The project aims for operational carbon neutrality, and the use of timber ensures a low carbon footprint. The PV roofing and ground-source heat pumps are used to provide the main source of energy, electricity, for the ESET Campus.
Selected as the winner of an international competition in 2020, the AI and Cybersecurity Hub, ESET Campus, is scheduled to begin construction in 2024, with expected completion in 2027.
