Description
The research centre is located in a hilly terrain in one of the most densely populated regions of the world. To the northeast, a road with increasing traffic load flanks the institute that is set back from the south bank of the Yangtze River. The building’s design is determined by this context and by a mixed programme that did not lend itself to a conventional layout.
The biomedical and biotechnological enterprise required a building providing laboratories and offices for the scientists as well as production areas, secondary and multi-purpose spaces, and apartments for the employees working in shifts.
The result is a design that organises the different functions heterogeneously both in vertical and horizontal direction. The exterior presents itself as an elongated compact building volume that unifies various groups of rooms between two oversized wall slabs. However, their differences are pronounced by individually placed openings and deep cuts in the façade, which also connect the building to the landscape and river.
The building accommodates areas of different floor heights. The northern four-storey wing contains apartments and offices and connects to the remaining building part via bridges and corridors. Three linked modules in the centre of the complex house areas for test production; to the south, a cafeteria has access to the exterior. Hence, the ground floor can be classified into public, non-public, and semi-public zones.
Due to larger floor heights the southern part of the complex comprises only three storeys. The major part of the first floor consists of an open laboratory area including study spaces. A conference room, some laboratories, meeting rooms, and offices are located on the second floor, the offices being detached by courtyards allocated behind the cuts in the façade. Together with a palm court these areas serve as spaces for communication and regeneration and characterise the integrating general concept.
The reinforced concrete frame structure received a façade of facing hollow concrete blocks that appears rather conventional; it does not tell that highly equipped laboratories are located behind it.
Drawings
Site plan
Schematic sketch of building
Ground floor
Second floor
Cross section
Longitudinal section
Photos
The deep cuts in the façade relate to different functions within the building
Interior view of highly equipped laboratories mainly used for biomedical research
Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.