Stata Center, MIT. (Wikipedia)
Scientific Buildings
The current drive to promote innovation and interdisciplinarity in third level research has resulted in the creation of a number of unique and peculiar buildings on university campuses.
In a highly competitive globalised research space, individual institutions and national bodies have sought to promote local expertise by contracting world-famous architects to design iconic structures, such as the Ray and Maria Stata Center in MIT (Frank Gehry, 2004), and Janelia Farm at Princeton (Rafael Viñoly, 2006). Each seeks to maximise knowledge sharing and collaborative research, with an emphasis on communal spaces, natural harmony, and unexpected novelty. Sometimes, the new inhabitants are uniformly delighted, e.g. The Salk Institute in California (Louis Kahn, 1963). Other times, such as in the pictured Stata Center, the reaction is mixed, with some people bemoaning the lack of private space, and others pleasantly curious about their new environment. In any case, controversy is often close at hand, as scientist, architect, and academic administration come together to determine the future of scientific research.
Architecture incorporates design, technology, and engineering into its processes. By shaping the halls of science, architecture is permitted to reflect on its own dependency on scientific knowledge and research whilst also contributing something back. The resources gathered in this case study section aim to provide an overview of debates in and around scientific buildings, and are sure to provoke further inquiry into the relationship between architecture and science.
