Description
The Sciences Institute provides Algeria’s Gendarmerie Nationale with facilities for forensic research on a high scientific level. The programme for 13 sections and training and administration facilities comprises areas of extremely different uses. These areas were distributed on two orthogonal five-storey volumes. A further elliptical volume contains a lecture hall, seminar rooms, and lounges on the first two levels and, above, rooms for the scientific and administrative management. The central entrance hall is situated between the ellipse and the two orthogonal volumes containing the studies and laboratories. Its corridor, which looks like a mirrored comb, at the same time separates and links the different functional areas.
The institute is located on a hill adjacent to one of the main roads leading to Algiers. It is part of a complex of buildings dedicated to forensic tasks that includes residential buildings for the staff, a restaurant, and sports facilities. The main entrance is situated half way up the hill. Due to the topography of the site, the buildings can be serviced on different levels limiting obstructions and security risks to a minimum. Various further requirements had to be incorporated into the design: the building structure had to be earthquake-proof; the forensic analysis required fully air-conditioned laboratories providing constant temperatures; frequent sandstorms had to be considered when planning the air-conditioning system and the exterior building skin.
The central corridors serving three laboratory sections on each level contain a middle zone incorporating central service shafts. Plasterboard partitions provide great flexibility.
The entire building is roofed by a slatted sunscreen shading the rooms facing the courtyard, the south façade, and the façades of the entrance hall. The east and west façades received fixed vertical solar blinds with metal louvers. The insulated and ventilated façade has a cladding of corrosion-proof stove-enamelled aluminium panels. As an architectural symbol for forensic work, the pattern of the solar protection elements is reminiscent of a DNA code.
Drawings
Schematic sketch of building
Ground floor
Typical floor
Typical laboratory floor plan with furniture and technical equipment
Photos
Visualisation of the building showing fixed solar blinds made of vertical metal louvres to the west and east
The slatted sunscreen roof creates a vivid shade pattern on the south façade
Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.