Sited in a rolling meadow in Galway, Ireland, with uninterrupted views in four directions, the Biosciences Research Building (BRB) is the first phase of a new North Campus Science Precinct at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). The BRB provides high technology science research space dedicated to cancer research, medical device technology, biomaterials science, glycoscience, regenerative medicine, chemical biology and BSL3 animal research, and is one of the most energy efficient research buildings in the world dedicated to such an intense scientific agenda. It was also constructed for an extremely low cost per SF ($413), as compared to similar facilities, which typically cost $600-800/SF. In fact, 89% of the building is used for research space.
Two large open lab suites face the River Corrib, and are bisected by a three story atrium. Office suites, connected on three levels with a communicating stair, bookend the plan. These three seams of vertical communities within the linear plan enhance collaboration and provide a sense of place for the scientists. The BRB is a simple, thin, linear walk-up bar building, where the slight cant of its mass mirrors the profile and geometry of the neighboring River Corrib, which also shapes the form of the new precinct and establishes both a strong campus edge and a new pedestrian thoroughfare, connecting the new science precinct with the heart of the historic campus.
An initial goal of the BRB was to design a landmark building for cutting-edge research in terms of program efficiency, energy conservation and thermal comfort. This led to a “minimum energy” approach that resulted in a superior working environment with a radically lower energy profile. The building block that allows this to happen is a “layered lab” concept with a high/low energy strategy, which places the most mechanically intensive spaces such as tissue culture and imaging suites, into a zone adjacent to the open lab space. Designed in 2009, the BRB was one of the first labs in the world to implement this new planning strategy. Low energy use spaces, such as writing carrels, offices and interaction spaces can be grouped along the perimeter to lower ventilation rates and optimize the opportunity for ample natural ventilation and daylighting. The “layered lab” concept also achieves a programmatic efficiency creating a compact and productive layout comprised of reconfigurable benches, coupled with lab support rooms. The increase in programmatic efficiency allowed the research to grow by 33% by increasing lab density from 2 to 3 bench positions per lab bench. This was achieved without a change to the building footprint, dramatically reducing the energy consumption per bench position.
The BRB was conceived by NUIG at the outset of the recession to invest in facilities that have synergies with the local biomedical/pharmaceutical industry and the potential to create new employment opportunities. The BRB provides a vital link between the “town and the gown,” both in the nature of the research, which spans national and international frontiers, and the architectural embodiment of a new ideal of “transparency of function.”
The Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland) has described the work conducted by the 300 scientists and researchers in biomedical science at the University as “mind-blowing” and indicated this sector of research is a “key drive of economic growth.”
In collaboration with Reddy Architecture and Urbanism (Architect-of-Record)
