en.Wedoany.com Reported - Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is designing a STEM-focused university campus for the Walton family (of Walmart dynasty) in Bentonville, Arkansas. This non-profit university aims to prepare students for the era of artificial intelligence and rapid technological change.
Polk Stanley Wilcox (PSW) will serve as the architect of record for the project. PSW, with offices in Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas, previously collaborated with OSD on the design of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine at Crystal Bridges, another educational initiative funded by the Walton family.
The new university campus covers approximately 422,000 square feet and is located on the former site of Walmart's headquarters. In 2025, the Walton family completed a new Walmart corporate headquarters designed by Gensler and SWA, freeing up this plot.
According to BIG, the master plan includes three buildings with a naturally weathered reddish-brown appearance and industrial forms, interspersed with green spaces and public plazas. Bjarke Ingels stated in a press release that the new STEM university aims to bridge the gap between academia and the working world, breaking down boundaries between campus and community through a vibrant, integrated environment accessible to faculty, staff, and the public.
The site will feature an academic building, student dormitories, and a makerspace. The makerspace is envisioned as an inhabited showcase, revealing the culture of physical experimentation and rapid prototyping to the public.
The academic building includes a vast open atrium, along with learning spaces, classrooms, laboratories, and office areas, with skylights bringing natural light into the central space. BIG confirmed that the design is intended to evoke the vernacular architecture of the Ozarks, with its Dogtrot breezeways and stacked forms drawing inspiration from historic cabins in northwestern Arkansas.
The student dormitory building features a figure-eight plan with two elevated courtyards, situated above dining and common amenity spaces. The building's orientation ensures one courtyard receives ample morning light, while the other receives ample afternoon light. The Walton family plans to welcome the first cohort of students in 2029 and will fully cover tuition for the inaugural year of operation.
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