Using Architecture To Promote Cross-Disciplinary Cooperation

This Building Forces Divergent Scientists to Mingle (+Video)

Pauline Bock | May 16, 2016

How do you design a building that promotes cross- disciplinary science? "You build one that's big enough," says Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, due to open at the end of the year.
This biomedical research institute - the biggest in Europe - will welcome 1,250 researchers from six institutions to study cancer, neurodegenerative conditions and infectious diseases. With 1,553 rooms and a floor area of nearly 93,000m2, the challenge for the Crick isn't just to bring them under the same roof; it's how to make them work together. "The whole building is designed specifically to encourage people to interact," says Jim Smith, director of research.

"The Crick occupies four laboratory "neighbourhoods", linked by two atria holding all the social areas, forcing scientists to mingle." Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2016/06/start/francis-crick-institute-scientific-research/viewgallery/629367

<more at http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2016/06/start/francis-crick-institute-scientific-research; related articles and links: http://www.metropolismag.com/June-2014/Face-to-Face/ (Face-to-Face. Even in our digital age, the urge to physically connect is still alive and well. June 2014) and http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/toon-dreessen-/architecture-and-community_b_7236966.html (How Architecture Can Bring Communities Together. May 8, 2015)>