Macro to Micro: Unpacking Innovation
By: Kerrie Russell, project leader at Woods Bagot.
Contending great distances, multiple time zones, and different cultures, the most important thing for an innovation district to establish is shared values and objectives. Once established, these must inform opportunities for virtual and physical connections, information sharing, and collaboration locally, nationally, and globally. Easy connection to transport routes and high levels of digital connectivity is vital for collaboration with regional and global partners and are key drivers to the districts’ viability and ongoing success. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
The process of implementing ideas propels society forward, inspiring a stream of inventions and improvements that slowly elevate everyday life. Heavily invested worldwide, global spending on innovation reached a record high of almost 1.7 trillion dollars last year - marking the pursuit, support, and nurturing of innovation as one of the biggest priorities of our time.
Purpose-built for innovation and promising to connect education, science, and research with industry, governments, and communities, innovation spaces vary in scale but share the common goal of nurturing ideas. The success of their scientific facilities depends on how they are designed to function within specific scales: District, Precinct, Hubs, Building, and 1:1.
When designers are given the chance to pair certain questions with each scale during the initial design stages, the best results happen. These questions are:
5 km ² + Districts.
Closing the distance: “What aims and objectives do we share?”
When considered at their largest scale, one of the most important things for an innovation space to establish is a common goal, meaning designers must ask “What are the unique shared aims and objectives?”.
The answer will inform a clear vision that provides a strong basis for briefing and engagement. With everyone focusing on the immense potential of the whole district, this shared concept will provide a cohesive framework able to contend with the sprawling distances of this scale.
Driven by the vision ‘to be a transformative and collaborative place of excellence solving global challenges to enhance and nurture lifelong health’, the Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct (RHIP) incorporates Sydney Children’s Hospital, Royal Hospital for Women, Lowe Institute, and the University of NSW. Clearly defined, these shared aims and objectives provide strong direction and incentive to expand innovation beyond its borders, attracting collaborative relationships locally and internationally.
On this larger scale, research facility designers must consider opportunities for virtual and physical connections, information sharing, and collaboration locally, nationally, and globally. Easy connection to transport routes and high levels of digital connectivity is vital for collaboration with regional and global partners and are key drivers to the districts’ viability and ongoing success.
Located at a key junction of the University of NSW and the Hospitals, the UNSW School of Biomedical Science is an integral component in the district. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
500,000 m² Precincts.
Weaving with space: “How can clustering make these facilities stronger?”
An innovation precinct requires a vision that identifies opportunities to establish meaningful cross-disciplinary relationships across the sectors, institutions, and typologies that define the space. For the precinct to thrive, designers must be clear about the benefit it brings to other facilities, asking “How can clustering make these facilities stronger?”
Clustering correctly will take an innovation space from a place where buildings are simply located near one another to a place where they actively encourage innovation and creativity through interaction, as was the case with Tonsley Innovation District. Located in South Australia, Tonsley incorporates government, education, industry, and start-ups within the previously disused Mitsubishi Motors site. Several sectors entwine – from energy and mining, simulation and automation to medical devices and assisted technologies – and cluster around the Main Assembly Building (MAB) which forms the heart of the precinct with core manufacturing facilities, amenities, and collaboration spaces.
Several sectors are entwined within Tonsley all clustered around the Main Assembly Building (MAB) which forms the heart of the precinct with core facilities, amenities, and collaboration spaces. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
50,000 m ² Hubs.
Bound by benefit: “Why choose this space over others?”
An innovation hub can differentiate itself from others through the incorporation of a defining element. The question “Why choose this space over others,” helps identify which key industry groups or education facilities will entice the best innovators to choose that offering over others – uniting them under a mutual benefit. Designers must establish how they might design a space to meet the ongoing needs of the researchers.
When combined with exceptional design, hubs can become beacons for ground-breaking research – as is the case with South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAMHRI). Located within the Adelaide Biomed Precinct, SAMHRI’s agile laboratories, specialist support spaces, and core shared facilities provide the points of difference that attracted multiple research institutions to the wider Adelaide BioMed City.
Core specialist services including proteomics, metabolomics, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, cryogenics, SPF animal, and microscopy are available to all researchers within SAMHRI and the wider precinct. The main research spaces can be adapted to each researcher’s requirements with minimal changes to existing infrastructure and high visibility and interconnectivity between research and workspaces. This gives research teams and institutions the ability to merge, knowledge share, be creative, test and collaborate as their research develops – a clear reason to choose SAMHRI over other hubs.
Located within the Adelaide Biomed Precinct, SAMHRI has an iconic appearance which demands attention. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
5000 m ² Buildings.
Multi-purpose for purpose: “How can we help ideas to grow?”
Within buildings, individual facilities can be incorporated to develop and grow ideas. At this scale, the innovation space belongs wholly to its users – becoming sanctuaries for creativity and experimentation. As a result, lab designers can focus on providing space for ideas to be tested, translated, changed, and implemented. We must determine the right level of amenity and adaptability – asking “How can we help ideas to grow?”
Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) Australia at the University of Queensland is a creative research and innovation center often cited as an exemplary innovation space by research stakeholders. Providing state-of-the-art facilities, BR&T utilizes augmented reality and computer labs with advanced manufacturing opportunities to generously provide for the exploration of ideas within an interdisciplinary environment of mathematics, engineering, human movements, neuroscience, chemistry, physics, psychology, and more. The projects’ skillful balance of amenities and adaptability elevate its areas to the point that they can easily nurture a range of ideas at many stages of development – helping them grow with ease.
The Incubator Building within the Qatar Science and Technology Park provides the flexibility and connectivity desired by industry, research, and start-ups. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
5 m ² 1:1.
Researchers face to face, in place: “What’s the glue?”
At an interpersonal scale, designers need to focus on providing the ‘glue’, or connective space, which binds people together – creating an environment in that researchers can thrive. Described as a ‘stickiness’ that attracts diverse collaborators and entices them to contribute to the organically growing ecosystem, the question ‘What’s the glue?’ must be considered at the very beginning to be integrated seamlessly with the overall vision and design.
It’s important to remember that the priority is the design of welcoming and inclusive spaces that provide a sense of place and community. Outdoor areas that connect with nature, comfortable spaces to sit with a colleague, or a café with good coffee to chat 1:1 with a researcher from another institution are equally effective in this aim as work and research spaces.
Melbourne Connect is an integrated innovation precinct that has successfully provided this welcoming environment. With the University of Melbourne’s School of Engineering at its core, Melbourne Connect provides extensive facilities to engage innovation including a series of flexible collaboration spaces, state-of-the-art AR and VR technologies, and the prototyping and advanced manufacturing opportunities of the Telstra Creator Space. In conjunction with these facilities, it is the attractive architecture and welcoming spaces which provide for education, research, and industry alike. These elements supply the ‘glue’– providing binding interstitial space for connection and contemplation.
Womin-djerring is the central garden with indigenous planting providing visual connections from the interior and a quiet communal space where people can be in nature. (Credit: Woods Bagot)
Micro to macro.
When designers and stakeholders investigate the answers to these five questions at the relevant scales, an understanding of spatial requirements emerges. From macro to micro, this allows us to design space for innovation and create facilities that work to propel innovation forward..