University Building ETH e-Science Lab | Baumschlager Eberle Architekten

Baumschlager Eberle have succeeded in harmonising the specific features of the Hönggerberg site with optimum flexibility in the structure of the building. The occupants have installed a great deal of electronic equipment in the e-Science Lab, but the outcome is not a high-tech building symbolic of the data highway. On the contrary, the architects have devised a no-frills rectangular block which integrates the multitude of planning tasks. Taking due account of the hillside location of the ETH campus, the spatial geometry of the structure sends out a clear-cut signal which appears perfectly natural in its timelessness. Indeed, the rectangular block reinforces a type of architecture which breaks free of any dependence on mechanical services. The structure provides a framework for the network of relations between teaching and research functions in the e-Science Lab. Six seminar rooms form readily comprehensible interior volumes. The exterior spaces of these educational boxes lend definition to the central hall with its multimedia teaching facility in the flow of movement generated by the circular mode of access that extends to the research offices. The changes made here by the occupant reflect the art of Adrian Schiess. The coloured educational boxes and the multimedia teaching facility can be regarded as orthogonal areas which extend their own ambiguous three-dimensionality, thereby questioning established ways of seeing things.

The rectangular nature of the structure demonstrates its worth in the research offices by making a major contribution to the flexibility of the building. The wall elements connect directly to the façade and have a unit spacing of 1.20 meters. They constitute the smallest spatial units, each with its own microclimate. This atmospheric location for researchers assumes a spatial dimension at the façade. The horizontal strip balconies and the vertical travertine blinds turn the façade into a picture puzzle. From the front, the sculptural compactness is transformed into a delicate structure when seen from a middle-distance perspective. Its network frames the glass of the thermal envelope of the building just as the surrounding trees do.