Marie Curie
With the opening of Marie Curie, Pivot Park grows over a quarter in area. As physicist and chemist, Curie earned Nobel prizes for the discovery of the elements polonium and radium. Her name reflects the promising companies in this fully leased mulitenant building with laboratories, offices and communal facilities.
Pivot Park
Pivot Park in Oss is a campus for open innovation in the field of drug discovery and development serving both start-ups and existing companies. Pivot Park was created in February 2012 from an initiative of the pharmaceutical company MSD in close cooperation with five partners: the province of North Brabant, the municipality of Oss, the Dutch ministries of Economic Affairs and of Health, Welfare and Sport, and the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM).
The project was funded by the province of North Brabant and the municipality of Oss as shareholders of Pivot Park. Open innovation seems to be the key word for the success of the Pivot Park. Access to the unique, high-quality R&D facilities and knowledge exchange with the community of other companies from all phases of ‘drug development’ make the campus a pharmaceutical focal point in The Netherlands.
Key position
Building Marie Curie is in a key position in the master plan. It forms the first sight when one drives into the car park and then walks towards Pivot Park. For this reason, a semi-public plinth has been built on two sides. The entrance is at the corner of the volume. Here, the façade has been opened up twice as high to create a view through to the heart of the campus. Directly behind this entrance is a central grandstand where lectures and events can be held. This grandstand staircase forms the starting point of the public route through the building. Marie Curie is the tallest building on campus and thus acts as a landmark for the campus.
New talent
Soon more than 350 talents will be working here at the six different tenants on new treatments and medicines, mostly in the field of cancer. Their promising pharmaceutical and biomedical innovations are already finding their way into society. In the future, their research demands will keep changing. Flexibility and adaptability of the spaces and furnishings was therefore one of the central design questions.
Planned and unplanned cross-pollination
Besides office and research spaces, the nearly 12,000 sq m building provides shared meeting facilities, co-working zones, roof terraces and meeting spaces. These shared functions are spread across the central atrium, which is accessible to all users. The atrium cannot be read at a glance but finds its way like a canyon through the exposed concrete support structure.
Along here, space is created for planned and unplanned encounters and cross-pollination. The lighting integrated in the supporting structure subtly accompanies this route. Along this route, the atrium opens up in places towards the façade: on ground floor, this moment is charged by the grandstand staircase, and on second and fourth floor by the spacious roof terraces. Pushing the façade inwards at the level of the roof terraces allows daylight to penetrate deep into the atrium.
Flexible floor plan
The basic floor plan is divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant forms a lettable unit of about 250 m². Within one unit, a maximum of 70% lab can be realised and a minimum of 30% office. The units can easily be connected, allowing a tenant to eventually take a full floor. The chemical and biological laboratories are flexible and modular, allowing for different usage requirements and future developments. This flexibility is carried through to the level of the modular laboratory fittings.
Sustainable
Despite the concrete main supporting structure, a thoroughly flexible shell was developed. The rentable areas are beam-free and realised with generous storey heights. This makes it easy to adapt the extensive technical installations. These installations are fossil-free and together with the passive sun blinds, low-energy lighting and lifts, heat recovery and solar panels, they contribute to the recently obtained BREEAM certificate.
Limited number of materials
The number of materials for Marie Curie has been deliberately limited. For the façade, window frames made of recycled aluminium with tubular slats in front of them reduce direct sunlight penetration by about 20 per cent. The concrete supporting structure and stability elements have been left visible and visually reinforced in the atrium by lineair lighting. The common areas are further finished with floored printing layers alternating with terrazzo. Finally, the wooden ceilings provide pleasant acoustics in the atrium, allowing both open gatherings and more private meetings.
Proof of the sum is responsible for the complete design of the building. In addition, Proof of the sum created the interior design of the communal areas. Finally, many of the tenants have been guided in the design of their interiors. In the past, Proof of the sum developed the master plan for Pivot Park together with MTD Landscape Architects and VKZ
