Lowy Cancer Research Centre by Laznimmo Architects and Wilson Architects in Association

Innovation and medical advancements are often in the hands of a team of people who build on the discoveries of others and rarely on the efforts of an individual. This is something prominent in the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, where, as a joint venture between the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine (FoM) and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA), its collaborative nature has been evident since its proposal. Essentially the meeting point between adult and childhood cancer research, the competition- winning scheme is fittingly the result of a collaboration between Lahznimmo and Wilson Architects.

Located in the medical precinct of UNSW’s Kensington campus, the 17,000- square-metre facility brings more than 400 researchers and support staff into an 8-storey-high building with PC2 microbiological and imaging research labs amongst many. The client brief called for a flexible research facility that would accommodate the evolving nature of research programming, its implications on the use of spaces, and the technology to be facilitated. In addition, a physical connection between the research centre and adjacent medical sciences buildings was desired to encourage a collaboration of ideas between the different fields of medical research.

Despite its abundant labs and hightech facilities, the centre finds its heart in the researchers and people that keep it running. Its organisation was derived from the metaphor of a ‘science knowledge bank’ which provided a simple and logical solution, conscious of the flow of researchers and their activities throughout the day. At face value, the organisation of spaces on each level is formal, but it avoids rigidity by flowing as a series of strands that come together in a ‘laboratory box’. The strands respectively categorise the spaces into a hierarchy of principle activities, exploring research as a correlation of lab work, technology, support staff and the innate human need for social interaction.

While it’s easy to assume that such clear logic would prove inflexible, the result is otherwise. The clarity of each strand, vast and configured in an open plan, welcomes the possibility of rearrangement and the implementation of newer technology in the future. These continuous lab spaces are visually connected to the support staff strand, separated by glass walls and doors. This connection is emphasised by a shower of light and views of greenery that prevents any sense of compartmentalisation and creates a sense of community between the researchers.

The articulation and orientation of the centre’s plan and form responds to external site conditions as well as the streets and buildings it addresses. The curvy plan of the social strand is appropriately distinct from the key research strands that it abuts. The vivid and friendly green motif of the exterior, which carries through to the internal social spaces, is partnered with informal seating, rugs and carpeting to cue a necessary break from clinical lab work to entice researchers into the relaxed, fluid realm of conversation. This decidedly human strand threads through the ground, as does the bright green hue, to the upper 5 storeys to create a uniting atrium which meets the centre’s entrance.

The atrium forms and highlights the social space of the building as it dramatically brings together the series of levels and welcomes the bridge that leads to the existing Wallace Wurth Building. Connected to the neighbouring building on four levels, the bridge links the lift cores of each, encouraging interaction between the occupants. Beyond a form of pedestrian access between the buildings, the bridge forms a dialogue between the two research facilities as a visible point of interaction – a representation of the collaboration of ideas.

The western end of the building faces the University Chancellery where the diverging strands and materials come together. Here, the reinforced concrete columns and post-stressed band beams are clearly expressed as they support the slabs and the pre-cast concrete panels of the centre’s northern end towards High Street, as well as the curtain wall and green aluminium cladding of the south. The elevated levels of the south end are more than a display of structure, freeing the ground up for landscaping and providing continuous ground-level views from one side of the centre to the other. For students and researchers walking along the outside, its a striking green canopy that is as welcoming as the landscaping and seating that surrounds it.

It’s no surprise that the Lowy Cancer Research Centre – foremost a place of medical research – is naturally driven by its function. The centre’s design and planning is routed back to the necessity for a facility that could properly house equipment and labs to give scientists the upper hand in the continuing battle against cancer. But the success of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre lies in the fact that it never pretends to be anything but what it is. It’s a research facility run by people working together and their ideas that form the bloodline of the centre. +

PHOTOGRAPHY Brett Boardman

1. A view from the west displays the meeting point between the building’s precast concrete northern façade and its elevated southfacing aluminium façade. 2. The vivid green of the exterior is repeated within the building, threading through all levels to add a playful touch to the social spaces that sit around the uniting atrium. 3. The green aluminium-clad structure is a striking element that peaks between the new building and its neighbouring Medical Sciences building, signifying a fresh connection between the two faculties. 4. Reinforced concrete panels combine with post-stressed beams to elevate the building’s southern end, freeing the ground for landscaping and leaving an outdoor walkway to High Street. 5. Support staff are conveniently placed beside the lab strand within a ‘support staff strand’ where they are kept visibly connected to the to researchers, separated only by glass walls and doors.