Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown | Charles Correa Associates

The champalimaud Foundation supports individual researchers and research teams working at the cutting edge of medical science. it aims to stimulate novel theoretical and practical methodologies by utilizing the experience of both research scientists and medical practitioners, connecting pure scientific investigation with applied clinical research. The champalimaud foundation aims to maximize the work being done in the fields of cancer research and neuroscience, including stem cell research and its clinical applications for parkinson’s and alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and spinal injury. [IT] Lisbona: si staglia scultoreo nello storico quartiere di Belèm, dove nei secoli passati le navi portoghesi salpavano alla scoperta dell’“ignoto”, il “Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown”. La struttura, ospitante uno dei più avanguardistici centri di ricerca biomedica su neuroscienze e oncologia, è stata progettatao dagli indiani di Charles Correa Associates (Mumbai). A commissionarla António de Sommer Champalimaud, uno dei più danarosi imprenditori portoghesi, che nel 2004, alla sua morte, ha donato circa 700 milioni di euro alla ricerca. L’inaugurazione dell’edificio è avvenuta nell’ottobre 2010. Il complesso sorge su un’area di 60mila metri quadrati ed è composto da due edifici in pietra, ospitanti unità di cura per 300 degenti, laboratori di ricerca, un auditorium e uno spazio espositivo, nonché gli uffici della fondazione stessa. Lo staff della struttura conta oltre cinquecento ricercatori e circa cento di medici. A unire i due volumi è un ponte in acciaio e vetro lungo 21 metri, realizzato da Bergermann Schlaich und Partner di Stoccarda (Germania), dal Prof. Jens Schneider dell’università di Darmstadt (Germania) e Bellapart di Olot (Spagna). The Chamaplimaud Centre for the Unknown is located on a spectacular site where the Tagus river joins the Atlantic Ocean, and from where 500 years ago Vasco da Gama and the other great navigators left on their Voyages of Discovery – an apt metaphor for the cutting-edge cancer and brain research being undertaken in the Centre today. The facilities covering a built-up area of 50,000 sqm have been disaggregated into 3 buildings, creating between them a generous public plaza that leads diagonally across the site towards the Atlantic Ocean. And as one walks up the gently sloping plaza, all you see ahead is the sky. The enigmatic sky - the ultimate Unknown. Then gradually you become aware of the two monoliths, each 15 meters tall that announce the climax of the whole axis. But even when you finally arrive there, you do not see river or ocean - but a body of water, in which is partially submerged an enigmatic object, like a jelly fish. What is it? The back of a turtle? An island?. . . It is what you set out to discover. In his remarks at the Inauguration, Correa said: “What makes me most proud is that this project is NOT a Museum of Modern Art. On the contrary, it uses the highest levels of contemporary science and medicine to help people grappling with real problems: cancer, brain damage, going blind. And to house these cutting-edge activities, we tried to create a piece of architecture. Architecture as Sculpture. Architecture as Beauty. Beauty as therapy” As can be seen in the Site Plan, more than half the site has been given back to the citizens of Lisbon - and the public domain of this plaza and the private domain of the scientists are arranged in a kind of ying-yang interlock, so that both activities can exist without disturbing each other. The patients, doctors, and scientists look out into large courtyards and terrace gardens, at different levels. – while the plaza connects at several places to the wide public promenade along the river front.