Project Profile: Australian National University Research School of Physics
ANU Research School of Physics & Engineering
Courtesy of Mark Syke
A high-tech science facility is adopting innovation, flexibility, and collaboration in its design execution.
The Australian National University Research School of Physics, designed by Hassell, offers an unobstructed ‘ballroom’ configuration, ISO 100 and 1000 cleanroom classifications, and high standards for air particulate filtration and acoustic isolation, among other standout features.
Lab Design spoke to Mark Roehrs, a principal at Hassell, about the research school's design challenges, standout architectural elements, and Australian regulations.
Q: Could you please introduce yourself?
A: [I am] Mark Roehrs, principal at Hassell. I'm a fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and an architect, master planner, and expert in briefing, designing, and delivering large and complex education, science, and health projects and precincts. As a principal at Hassell, I've been shaping the strategic and conceptual direction of significant education and science sector projects since 2004.
I apply a rigorous briefing method to my deep understanding of learning and research processes to design and deliver Australia's most advanced facilities and laboratories. As well as the hands-on experience of delivering projects with performance and technical excellence, my knowledge is underpinned by global tours and study of best practice research and learning facilities.
Q: Could you tell us more about the design process? What was it like from conception to execution?
A: It started with a precinct master planning process to understand the nature of the functioning and condition of current facilities. We proposed a staged strategy for redevelopment to create state-of-the-art facilities for future research and learning. There were inherent challenges, including heritage building stock, existing research infrastructure (that couldn't be moved), and resolving the staged precinct redevelopment strategy to minimize the number of moves for occupants.
The process was deeply consultative, where we engaged with the research community to understand their requirements. It was also an opportunity to be transformational in how they worked and used space. The model adopted, moved to share specialist lab infrastructure where previously labs were highly distributed and located within departments. The clustering strategy co-locates like-lab typologies to enable high flexibility and adaptability. Twenty-two stable labs and a large clean room facility are integrated into stage one. To maintain a sense of community and togetherness as research 'tribes', the office workspace model has shifted towards a more collaborative open environment where communities cluster together for individual-focused and collaborative engagement.
The extensive collaboration process ran from masterplan through to all design phases.
ANU Research School of Physics & Engineering
Courtesy of Mark Syke
Q: Were there any foreseeable limitations or concerns during the design process? How were they addressed?
A: ANU Research School of Physics is a highly technical and complex laboratory building with very high-performance criteria for vibration, magnetic fields, air cleanliness, temperature, and humidity control overlaid with rigorous safety provisions to manage high-risk gases and chemicals. A high level of collaboration and rigor from the contractor, expert client group, and specialist engineering team led by the Hassell lab design team resolved this design challenge.
Extensive vibration and magnetic field level testing was undertaken, with ongoing monitoring through the construction process to ensure that the build outcome achieved target levels. The project involved demolishing and interfacing with an existing heritage building. Strategies involved:
Temporarily decanting staff.
Protecting existing heritage fabric.
Maintaining an operational facility whilst the construction was in progress.
Q: What was the most rewarding part of the design process?
A: The most rewarding part of the design process was interacting with the research community to understand their needs and potential and to interpret that into a transformational design that impacted how they worked and collaborated and would be a great place to work every day.
A successful build is one that the occupants feel like they've got a great place to work, both functionally and experientially. Part of that is about making a building that reveals the activity that occurs within instead of activities being hidden. Achieving transparency and openness is vital to connecting people visually and physically within the building and providing natural light and outlook to as many spaces as possible.
Q: How did sustainability inform your design?
A: High-performance lab buildings are significant energy consumers, so tailoring the systems to minimize energy use was a crucial part of the thinking and creating a building envelope optimized for thermal performance.
ANU Research School of Physics & Engineering
Courtesy of Mark Syke
Q: How long did the project take to complete? Was it within your projection?
A: ANU Research School of Physics represents the first stage of the Physics Precinct Master Plan and marks a transformational eight-year journey and partnership between Hassell and the research school. It was a 3.5-year build time consistent with the construction's complexity.
Q: What feature was the most enjoyable to design? And what was the most challenging?
A: The most enjoyable and challenging part of designing was the nanofabrication facility – the centerpiece of the building. We moved away from the idea of keeping these labs enclosed and hidden and instead created a transparent 'ballroom' configuration.
The nanofabrication facility is enclosed in a transparent three-story timber mullioned glass shell. Hence, the research conducted inside is visible; similarly, lab researchers can view other parts of the school and the landscape beyond.
Generous skylights illuminate the atrium's open staircases and interaction terraces that link labs to workspaces, making these beautiful spaces to collaborate.
Q: How does the design support the goals of the school (i.e. innovation, discovery, expansion of world-class capabilities, flexible high-performance research platforms, collaborative academic workplace, etc.)?
A: A key goal and driver for the project was creating an environment that supports discovery and innovation by enabling individual /focused work and collaborative teamwork, providing state-of-the-art research facilities, and creating infrastructure enabling communication with industry, the public, and the larger research community.
Q: We primarily have a North American audience, are there any interesting or unique standards/building techniques/etc. in Australia that our audience should know about?
A: One of the most interesting construction pieces was using CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) in staircases to ensure low EMF (Electromagnetic Field) environments. Minimizing both EMF and vibration was essential in preserving the integrity of research environments with ultra-sensitive equipment.
Q: Are there any unique design features?
A: The nanofabrication facility is a ballroom configuration in a glass box that enables full transparency into and out of the facility.
The nanofabrication facility achieves ISO 100 and 1000 cleanroom classifications with ultra-clean laminar airflow from the perforated gel-sealed ceiling down through the modular cast aluminum 'ballroom' floor into the sub-fab space below. Air is returned via perimeter glass ducts to the plant room above, enabling full transparency into the facility from the public viewing corridor and central atrium.
In the lithography area (ISO class 100 cleanroom), orange film filters protect photo-sensitive processes from 180nM – 300nM wavelength (yellow) light.
A total of 22 70m2 stable labs with adjacent control rooms support varying configurations of lasers and microscopes with VC-F-rated vibration isolation to independent slabs and CLT timber enclosures.
Austenitic stainless-steel fixings and slab reinforcement limit Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF)
Atrium staircases employ cantilevered Cross Laminated Timber construction to minimize EMF impacts on adjacent stable labs.
Q: What is your favorite part of the research school?
A: The warmth and richness of the occupied interiors, with a simple palette of timber, stone, and glass with color-accented furnishings contrast with the high-tech instrument-intensive lab "jewel" it envelopes, belying the complexity of the engineering that enables it.
These are beautiful spaces that the scientists enjoy being in: intimate yet visually interconnected, animated in soft atrium light with the warm materiality of timber framing transparency and outlook.
ANU Research School of Physics & Engineering
Courtesy of Mark Syke
Q: Is there anything you would like to add or mention?
A: Key to the project's success has been the leadership of the project champion, the director of the research school of physics, Professor Timothy Senden.
From Professor Timothy Senden:
"Hassell brought a long and deep experience in capturing the social intellect of creative enterprises and recasting it through a sophisticated consultation process. They are the masters of the art of translation and achieved something profoundly sociological, so much more than a mere Director could achieve. When it came time to design the physical spaces for our diverse community they helped us to capture the essential elements of our research culture. They provoked appropriate debate and elevated the necessary discussion to examine the possibilities of a future research environment. Testably, these steps helped shape the consolidation of disjoint and misaligned facilities in a rational direction.
The great challenge for Hassell was to marry our vision with all the other components; a flexible nanofabrication facility, ultra-stable labs, a collaborative and peaceful office space, and an auditorium, all within the same envelope. From the onset, we knew this would represent an incredible technical achievement, and accordingly acoustic, mechanical, and electrical elements would need to work one, entirely as if they were the precision instruments the building would eventually house. I can say we have achieved all that we had dreamed of. Hassell provided the technical know-how to interweave all the complexity together, through deep consultation with multitudes of experts.
From construction and design teams, through to university clients, I know we all consider that we have built far more than a building. The environment invites discoveries, engaging collaborations, and a place to communicate new understandings. I do not doubt at all that this is an iconic building for legendary research."
