Vertically challenged

摘要

Hawkins Brown's new 12,000m~2 biochemistry block, built on a rare, sizeable plot in the middle of Oxford University's city centre science campus, replaces two old and inefficient warrens that typified the geeky labs of popular imagination. As the best science is apt to do, the £40m first phase of the new biochemistry building challenges and redefines traditional notions. With its greater floor-to-floor slab heights, curtain wall glazing and distinctive coloured glass facade fins, the new building has metaphorically dragged the department out of the dark ages into the enlightenment.