Vignoli is renowned for his ability to design medical laboratories, where rigidly specified technical parameters usually keep the architect's work to a minimum, giving them a personal touch and creating a comfortable working atmosphere in the interior. Now, to its Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of California, Van Andel Medical Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and other similar facilities, a complex of laboratories has been added on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.
This is a new building of the existing Perelman Center, which serves as the hub of the university's "health system" (it was designed by Vignoli in collaboration with Perkins Eastman and opened in 2008). The 14-storey building includes three floors of the old building and the proton therapy center: they constitute its "base". All areas of the building are clearly visible on the façade: the glazing strips of the three floors of the Perelman Center clinic are replaced by a closed technical level, and then by a sun-protected vivarium (so that experimental animals experience a minimum of stress; the technical floor also protects them from the hustle and bustle of the hospital). The 105-researcher laboratories at the end of the main building are bathed in sunlight, although each employee can adjust the illumination of their workplace, as well as its configuration. It is also very easy to replace laboratory "workbenches" with ordinary office desks or computing "stations", and vice versa: access to all life support systems of the building is equally distributed along the planning grid; the help of electricians and other foremen is not needed to connect to them. Thus, the most flexible planning structure is created, suitable for any functional tasks.
N. F.
