Called "Atlas", the new building is distinguished by an unusual load-bearing structure: if the mythological Atlas held the sky on its shoulders, then in Vignoli's construction all its mass is supported by a concrete frame carried out on the facade of the building. The walls of the seven-storey cubic volume are thus lined with a rhomboidal lattice made of prefabricated parts.
This solution made it possible to plan the premises of the building with practically no supports, so all 9,700 m2 of the area in this building can be used to the maximum. In its center is an atrium with glass ceilings, which are crossed in different directions by bridges that allow you to move faster through the building.
Atlas is located on the university's new campus called the Bourne Center. It will house laboratories for the study of the environment and technologies used in agriculture and the food industry, as well as administrative premises.
