Integrated Design for a Sustainable Future:
The Lab

To design the genomic research lab included in the plan, SOM architects joined SOM planners in an integrated team that also included SOM engineers and SOM sustainability experts.

The team analyzed how to scale the building to fit into its assigned site and complement the surrounding buildings. And although the prescriptive campus Master Plan calls for a more traditional architectural language—in keeping with the original campus—the SOM team was encouraged to create an image of a building that would truly represent the very modern field of genomics.

Examining the changing nature of education and the notion of an integrated curriculum, the team scrutinized the building’s response to these factors. Of great importance was seamlessly knitting the building into the campus fabric, so that it became an event in daily campus life.

A 15-foot difference between the building's entrance at ground level and the rest of the upper campus was resolved by lifting the building to allow a campus crossroad to pass through—connecting the building to its surrounding site and the rest of the campus. A student may thus pass through the building on the way from his or her dorm to English class. And the English class itself may be located in the building, which includes an entire level of classrooms that accommodate disciplines besides science.

Typical lab organization and structure is often very linear (300 feet long by 125 feet wide). During the pre-design process, designers discovered that lab users learn more about each other’s research while waiting in line for coffee or lunch than at work in the lab—despite the fact that in interdisciplinary genome research, many different researchers from various fields are meant to collaborate and communicate with one another regularly.

SOM designers set out to challenge the model of the monastic-like researcher working alone in a solitary cubicle—presenting instead a new paradigm of transparency, flexibility, connectivity, and engagement with the park-like setting outside.  

First defining the fixed critical elements to act as the building’s root, SOM then considered which elements could and would change along with constantly-evolving methodologies. Bioinformatics—the visualization of the lab's scientific studies—was identified as the central hub. In a typical lab, access to and connectivity with such a hub would be limited by the linear space. But designers believed that transparency among bioinformatics and the traditional labs was crucial—and supportive of the notion of integrated curriculum and learning.

To adapt to the site, the idea of a linear lab space became an “L” shape. The design of the resulting three pods  incorporates the ideas of transparency and porousness on a horizontal and vertical level. On each floor, the transparent layout encourages discourse between labs and offices. Circulation paths and lounges between the three pods foster opportunities for lab users to step outside their individual cubicles and labs.

Vertically, a staircase designed in collaboration with Jamie Carpenter and David Norris of Carpenter Norris Consulting connects the various levels.

Connected to the rooftop greenhouse, the staircase is a glowing column of light—a metaphoric pin that links the building’s pieces. Both the staircase and its surrounding space get much foot traffic, and function as informal gathering spaces where researchers from different disciplines can gather and exchange ideas.

As a genome collects individual pieces of genetic information into a whole, the architectural equivalent of a glass jacket embraces the three pods, defining the building’s architectural language. The building is in use 24 hours a day; so the glass jacket allows light to be diffused and quietly glow on the exterior, minimizing light pollution but allowing enough interior light for lab users.

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