New Biochemistry building. University of Oxford
The new £49 million Biochemistry building at the University of
Oxford designed by Hawkins\Brown architects is now complete.
The distinctive 12,000 sq m facility with its glass facades and
coloured glass fins brings together 300 lecturers, researchers and
students previously based in a number of separate buildings.
Inside, a 400 sq m atrium with breakout spaces and specially
commissioned artworks encourages collaboration between the
researchers.
The Biochemistry Department at Oxford University is the largest in
the UK and is internationally renowned for its research in the
understanding of DNA, cell growth and immunity. Previously the
department’s scientists have had to conduct research in outmoded
buildings spread across the Science Area in the centre of Oxford.
The brief for the new building was to achieve a new ethos of
“interdisciplinary working” where the exchange of ideas is
promoted in a large collaborative environment. At the same time
space was required to enable the research groups to focus on their
cutting-edge work in state-of-the-art laboratories.
The building challenges public perceptions of the inaccessible
nature of research. All of the elevations are transparent, with the
laboratories visible at the external face. This open and transparent
approach makes a statement about the value and integrity of the
biomedical research inside.
The new facilities bring together over 300 researchers and post
graduate students working together in bioinformatics, chromosome
biology, molecular biophysics and biochemistry. The project
reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of scientific
research, which no longer relies on traditional departmental
demarcations but requires “thinking” spaces which facilitate cross
fertilization of ideas.
All of the interior spaces revolve around a 400sqm organic shaped
naturally ventilated, timber clad atrium. Dramatic sculptural
staircases criss-cross the atrium, which facilitate chance
encounters and conversations between researchers. Informal
meeting areas are dispersed across the atrium on all five floors.
Open plan write-up areas also share the atrium space. All the
cellular office accommodation has full height glazed partitioning to
allow greater transparency and availability.
“This is a beautiful, innovative and functional building. It allows
conversations to happen that wouldn’t otherwise take place in a
thousand years.”
Prof. Kim Nasmyth, Head of Biochemistry
The external envelope of the new Biochemistry Building is
constructed using a unitised curtain walling system. Subtly
coloured laminated glass fins fixed vertically within the mullions
wrap the full perimeter of the building, framing views in and out of
the building as well as providing a single architectural language
which unifies the building. The colours of the fins pick up on the
rich red, terracotta, orange, brown and plum of the surrounding
buildings, providing a bold yet complementary take on the historic
setting of Oxford. Due to the tight site the building is only ever
viewed obliquely and this arrangement ensures good daylight for
users while controlling long views into and out from the building to
provide a degree of privacy. The glass fins cast ever-changing
coloured light and shadows across the elevations, making patterns
of light within the building and across the surrounding streets.
The new Biochemistry’s art programme “Salt Bridges” was a major
constituent in providing this creative and thought-provoking
environment. Lead artist Nicky Hirst was appointed by the
Department to work with the Department and Hawkins\Brown in
creating a strategy for accommodating challenging site-specific art
within the building.
The digital artist Tim Head was awarded a residency with the
Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Biochemistry (SBCB)
Department. His residency has explored the interface between
high-end computation for biomolecular simulations and
contemporary digitally–based visual art, both of which are
concerned with visual representation of abstract concepts and
data. Tim has produced two pieces of work for the building: “Open
Field” a digitally printed carpet for the atrium with a four-way repeat
which creates a pattern that is neither uniform nor random; and
“Light Cycle” a digital, kinetic, light installation for the atrium wall
which uses computer programming to set up a series of colour
movements mirroring the use of simulations used by the
researchers to virtually explore the behaviour of protein molecules.
“This work provides a metaphor for the visualisation of numerical
data concerning the evolution in time of complex protein systems. It
will serve to remind researchers that what they see on their screens
are abstract representations of the behaviour of molecules, not the
molecules themselves.”
Prof. Mark Sansom, Director SBCB
“I wanted to explore the electronic space of the computer screen –
to isolate the properties that are intrinsic to the electronic space and
get rid of the things that I felt were borrowed from other mediums.
You are left with something that is purely electronic……. It’s the
electronic Modernism.”
Tim Head
Fine art photographer Peter Fraser was commissioned by the
Department to undertake a residency documenting the
construction period of the building. Peter has created a large
archive of exquisite images as the old buildings were demolished
and the new building was created.
“There are three things in particular that make Peter’s images of
interest to me as a Biochemist. Firstly they are concerned with what
things are made of. Secondly he is documenting a process of
physical change and ‘capturing the intermediates” which is what we
do as scientists. Thirdly the mark of a great scientist is to see what
everyone else sees but to think what no-one else has thought. Peter
achieves this in his photography.”
Prof. Jonathon Hodgkin