12 Dec 08

Opening of the new Biochemistry building. Professor Kim Nasmyth showing a group, including the University Vice-Chancellor, round the new building.

The new £49 million, 12,000 sq m Biochemistry building at the University of Oxford designed by Hawkins\Brown architects is now complete.

The distinctive facility with its glass facades and coloured glass fins brings together 300 lecturers, researchers and students previously based in a number of separate buildings across the University’s Science Area. Inside, a large open atrium with breakout spaces and specially commissioned artworks encourages collaboration between the researchers.

The transparent glass exterior of the building makes the laboratories with biomedical researchers at work visible from the outside. Coloured glass fins all around the building cast changing patterns of light while solar cells on the roof provide a significant part of the building’s electricity.

At the centre of the building is a 400 sq m naturally ventilated, timber clad atrium. Staircases criss-cross between the five floors, allowing frequent meetings and conversations between researchers. There are various informal meeting areas and open-plan workspaces dispersed on the different levels, while noise-damping acoustics allow uninterrupted work.

This design establishes a collaborative environment where the exchange of ideas between scientists is promoted. With the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research, this is important so that researchers can come together easily and share their different areas of expertise.

‘This is a beautiful, innovative and functional building. It allows conversations to happen that wouldn’t otherwise take place in a thousand years,’ says Professor Kim Nasmyth, Head of the Department of Biochemistry.

A new art programme for the Department of Biochemistry, Salt Bridges, has been an important part of providing a creative environment. Artist Nicky Hirst led the project, creating a large-scale design for the front of the building featuring a series of inkblots.

The digital artist Tim Head was awarded a residency with the Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Biochemistry (SBCB) research group, producing works that explore the similarities between computation in biomolecular research and digital visual art. Fine art photographer Peter Fraser documented the construction period of the building, while Annie Cattrell was commissioned to create a large-scale sculptural work for the atrium.

‘The aim was not just to re-accommodate existing activities in this new building,’ says Denis O’Driscoll, Department Administrator. ‘Instead it is designed for innovation – we wanted to reduce the doorstep to discovery. It’s an aspirational building that will enable better science.’

The Biochemistry Department at Oxford University is the largest in the UK and is internationally renowned for its research on the understanding of DNA, cell growth and immunity. A second phase will see the new building extended for another 500 researchers.

The new Biochemistry building is the first stage of a major redevelopment of the Science Area. When this is linked to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter development, it will represent hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment in the infrastructure of the University of Oxford.