UCI Natural Sciences Unit II Building

Narratives

Diversity within Unity

Architectural Context: The 146,075 assignable square-foot Natural Sciences Building contains offices, laboratories and support functions of the Schools of Physical Science, Biological Sciences, and Engineering. The Natural Sciences Building preserves and enhances the overall architectural context of the Campus Master Plan established in 1963, while addressing the unique needs of the occupants it serves. A key principle of the Plan is ‘diversity within unity.’ Unity is expressed by the coherence of landscape, hardscape, and building material palettes in the radial infrastructure of open spaces, view corridors and circulation linkages emanating from the central park. Diversity is expressed through the distinct architectural themes, and customized form and function of buildings associated with various academic disciplines, strategically sited to frame important view corridors in the six ‘quads’ of the academic core surrounding the central park.

Flexibility and Adaptability of Form and Function: The building consists of two perpendicular wings configured in an L-shape. These house the laboratories and associated support space, faculty and administrative office areas, and other research space. The wings intersect in a five-story entry tower, housing common areas, the main entry, stairway, and vestibules. The design of the main stairway is a bold expression of vertical movement, promoting pedestrian circulation over elevator transport. Common areas in the building promote formal and informal interaction and the exchange of ideas and information among the building’s occupants in a variety of structured and non-structured environments. Offices are located so as to provide direct contact between professors, researchers and students, enhancing interaction. Laboratories are designed for flexibility and adaptability to meet current and future demands.

Sustainable Performance: The building incorporates state-of-the-art building systems and applies the best practices and principles of energy-efficient and sustainable design for improved energy conservation and performance, exceeding state energy code standards by 20%. Energy enhancements include high-performance glazing, roof insulation exceeding the T-24 minimum, control of outside airflow, increased pipe and duct insulation, highly efficient air-handling motor units, variable air volume systems, zone presence sensors, reduced velocity design, direct digital control building automation, occupancy sensors, high-efficiency lighting fixtures, and energy-efficient transformers. It is designed as a 70-year building, with no deferred maintenance for 20 years.

Visual and Functional Connectivity: Given the mild local climate, the open stairways, oversized lobbies and vestibules invite users to congregate and interact inside and outside the building. The sculptured main stairway frames picturesque vistas of the Campus. The orientation and openness of the two-story main entry allow the building to harvest natural light by day, reducing artificial lighting demand. Dramatic lighting accents produce a dynamic interplay of light and color in the tower at night. Activities in the tower connect both visually and functionally to the surrounding Campus, creating a vibrant node of activity. Rich red granite on the building’s base cladding, green Vermont slate tiles bordering the recessed windows, and dark salmon copper cladding on the exterior stair canopy add a patina to the warm colors and textures of the exterior cast-in-place concrete, preserving and enhancing the overall architectural context of the Campus.

Creative Interaction By Design

The Natural Science Building has created an environment fostering productive collaboration and fertile interaction among faculty, researchers, and students in various departments of our Schools of Physical and Biological Sciences, and Engineering. Disciplines and functions are juxtaposed vertically and horizontally within the building. Open and specialized office and laboratory spaces are placed strategically and conveniently. We have found this arrangement conducive to daily interaction, the exchange of ideas and the sharing of resources, including meeting rooms, informal common areas, centrifuges, specialized microscopes, autoclaves, a state-of-the-art aquatic facility, and other research equipment and facilities. The building environment serves as a strong foundation for educational and scientific collaboration and interaction in the following domains:

Interdisciplinary Exchange: Using a cross-disciplinary approach, combining molecular biology and bioinformatics, researchers are discovering how to isolate growth factor signals for cancer development and evaluate the production of insulin in the pancreas associated with diabetes. They have found that the proximity of researchers within the building reduces the likelihood of sample contamination and increases their ability to share cell samples among research groups. The interdisciplinary ‘Life Chip’ research program is investigating how to integrate semiconductor and biological sensor technologies to develop tools for assessing predispositions to disease. The researchers have found that the configuration of adjacent laboratories and ancillary spaces with specialized functions, including laser physics, light and dark spectroscopy, and wet chemistry has facilitated systematic research studies leading to the production of prototype bio chips.

Transfer of knowledge between pure and applied research: Using lasers and other state-of-the-art tools, researchers are pursuing pure research on how proteins interact inside cells to learn how to develop new instruments for tissue engineering and diagnosing cancer growth. Researchers have found the large, flexible open-space labs and common areas enhancing these investigations by enabling the researchers to share experimental resources, meet informally, and reconfigure the spaces to suit evolving research requirements.

International Collaborations: Researchers have found that the building design is conducive to productive international scientific collaborations.
• The Department of Developmental and Cell Biology is working with cancer institutes in Japan to learn how to better diagnose growth factor genes associated with malignancies.
• The Department of Biological Engineering is conducting collaborative research with Italian researchers using the building’s specialized laboratory for fluorescent dynamics (LFD).
• A team of American, Chinese, Dutch, and Armenian researchers in the building is engaged in a productive collaboration on the ‘Life Chip’ research program.

The researchers have learned that the design factor that has contributed most to these collaborations is the integration of common, flexible, and specialized research facilities.

Natural Sciences Building continues to serves needs of the University well, in meeting our commitments to excellence in scientific education and research, and fulfilling our mission to foster interdisciplinary research collaboration, locally and internationally.