The Queen Mary University, the latest project to be completed by Will Alsop’s London office is a research centre offering workspace for 400 scientists in an open-plan environment.

The use of an open-plan environment was considered a key issue by the design team in the effort to foster new ideas through a process of cross-fertilisation. Another key issue was to maintain accessibility, so as to create a learning resource for the local community. The outward shell of the building, a largely transparent envelope intended to visually communicate its purpose, houses a workspace level above which a number of pods are suspended, each of which provides support facilities to the scientists below.

The pods were used as an opportunity to introduce a number of colourful sculptoreal elements into the workspace. The Cell, the largest of all the pods, is a giant orange molecule.

It provides 195 m2 of floorspace, on two floors, to be used as an interactive learning facility for the public. The Mushroom pod, an open-topped space, provides an area where seminars can be organised for up to 30 people. The Cloud and Spikey pods, located at the southern end of the pavilion, provide flexible meeting space. The white Cloud consists of a series of metal rings over which fabric is stretched to give it an elliptical form; Spikey is a combination of push-out and cable structures, one of the most complex tensile forms ever created as a usable architectural construction.

by Joseph Grima
from Domus News


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