The building, named Brockman Hall, cannot be called simple. The main task of the authors was to harmoniously fit it into the existing architectural context. Employees of KieranTimberlake worked on a "historical" site: the fact is that the master plan of the university campus was created back in 1910 by the bureau Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson; in the documents of those years, the campus is called the "Scientific Quadrangle".
The new building is surrounded by six rectangular buildings with various functional purposes. Brockman Hall also has a rectangular plan, but its volumetric-spatial composition is complicated. The building with a total area of just over 10 thousand m2 consists of two elements connected at the upper level by two glazed passages. The northern volume is raised on carved concrete columns that bear images illustrating classical and modern physical theories; this is how the "portal" leading to the courtyard is formed. The translucent facade of the northern building is decorated with a complex geometric pattern imitating the "Penrose mosaic".
The façade of the more enclosed southern volume is clad in terracotta-clad aluminum composite panels. The walls of the first level are lined with glass blocks with inserts of real clay bricks - this is perceived as a tribute to the glorious architectural traditions of the past. Thanks to the transparent filling and glass enclosing structures, the interior of the laboratory building is always flooded with sunlight during the day.
Nevertheless, the most technically complex laboratories filled with vibration-sensitive equipment (nuclear and molecular physics, nanotechnology, biophysics laboratories) are located in the basement. On the ground floor there are laboratory rooms, and besides them - the offices of teachers and researchers, a lecture hall and classrooms. On the upper tiers there are also offices, the administration of the faculty, halls for seminars. In percentage terms, the functional load is distributed as follows: 60% of the area - laboratories, about 30% - offices and 10% - classrooms.
The project budget is US $ 67 million. Thanks to the use of resource-saving technologies (rainwater collection and treatment system, natural ventilation, electric light intensity sensors), the building was awarded the LEED Gold Certificate.
A. B.
