Academic and design planning began in 1997 in response to the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) request for first-time proposals in genomics. Details of the new scientific program were provided to CFI in order to apply for the grant, the largest biomedical research grant at the time. After all funding was secured, construction began in early 2003 and the University opened the $105-million (CAD), 20,550-metre Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (CCBR) in January 2006.

Housing interdisciplinary genomics research including the fields of medicine, engineering, biology, and computer science, the facility is a greenhouse for Nobel laureates, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in genome research. The building is designed to house between 35 and 40 faculty members and 500 students, post-doctoral fellows, and technicians.

Six months after occupancy, the CCBR won the prestigious International Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and is among the top three for the inaugural Royal Institute of British Architects’ Lubetkin Prize. With no previous experience in lab design, the design firms of architectsAlliance and Behnisch, Behnisch, and Partner created what judges cited as “airy laboratories, a multitude of informal breakout spaces, a connection to nature, and an impressive entrance.”

The CCBR is situated between two classic brick buildings, the Rosebrugh engineering building and the Fitzgerald medicine building. A new cafeteria links the facility with the Medical Sciences Building, transforming a back door into the front door of the University.

CCBR Motivation—The Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project opened the door to the post-genomic era, which has changed the face of research into more of a collaborative approach. This improved approach to biological research dictates a shift in thinking from individual genes to entire sets of information and interaction, thus motivating a project of this size and scope. University officials envision CCBR as a research hub where world-class teams converge to generate new cross-disciplinary ideas.

“The thinking used to be, one student, one gene; today it’s one group of collaborators, 100,000 genes. However, we don’t know where the science is going,” says James D. Friesen, Ph.D., director emeritus, at the University of Toronto. “In 10 years, it is going to be somewhere else. If everyone has to work together to follow the science, it requires a building that works well now and down the road.”

DNA directs the activities of all organisms and an organism’s complete set of DNA is called its genome. Approximately three billion DNA base pairs or letters make up the human genome. Researchers use DNA sequencing to search for genetic variations and/or mutations that may play a role in the development or progression of a disease. Sequencing simply means determining the exact order of the bases in a strand of DNA. Ultimately, the sequencing information defines a cell, and how it self replicates and mutates to become an integrated, self-regulating system. This amount of DNA sequencing and abundance of information is only the beginning. The next and most complex steps are to understand the biological meaning of the DNA information.

“This vastly improved research approach allows one group of collaborators to study thousands of genes,” says Friesen. “Research begins with geneticists and biologists, followed by computer scientists, robotics engineers to create the equipment, chemists to understand cellular pathways, physicists to understand biological networks, physical chemists to apply photonics and imaging, structural chemists to determine protein structures, and theoretical physicists to look at the information from many angles.”

Research Model and Lab Design Work Together

CCBR’s flexible layout centers on the premise that an organization must be willing to change as the science changes. By discouraging defensive territory and encouraging willingness to share and change partners as the science evolves, the result is a building that encourages chance meetings with open plan laboratories that are easily modified to accommodate tomorrow’s advances in science.

“We designed open laboratories—benches that can be moved, relocated, taken out, put in different configurations, raised or lowered—or a lab that can go from a biochemistry lab to a dance floor in two hours,” says Friesen. “You string as many services as you can from the ceiling, and you keep the holes in the slab for the fume hoods and the sinks localized in one area. There are separate service rooms for the specialized kind of research instruments in localized areas.”

Not like typical concrete and steel labs, the all-glass structure includes an abundance of wood as well as internal gardens with trees and bamboo groves. The 13-story building contains wet and dry laboratories, research offices, clustered faculty rooms, three seminar rooms, a six-story garden and atrium, three other internal gardens, and mechanical operations on the seventh floor. The flexible and open research facility with a generic layout on each floor includes a number of sustainable design features, including high-performance insulated glazing, double façade for winter and summer insulation, windows linked to HVAC shut-off switches, and separate mechanical systems for labs and offices to promote better air quality.

While most buildings are spread out on vast horizontal planes, sometimes requiring scooters for ease of transportation, this tall, narrow space presented other challenges. In order for people to meet colleagues with ease, internal staircases or communication passageways connect the floors. These passageways encouraging collaboration include bar-high benches with power and data connections. All stairways lead off from the main corridor on one side of the building. Some are a spiral staircase design and some connect floors over the bamboo garden. Several such stairways are enclosed in pop-outs on the side of the building.

Design Process

A users committee made up of members of the faculties of medicine, engineering, and pharmacy, in addition to a student representative, and university architecture and grounds representatives, met every two months during the design and construction phase to establish guidelines. Friesen and Cecil Yip, vice dean and a biochemist, led the design process from the users’ point of view, including the day-to-day functions. They consulted with various campus experts and scientists along the way to ensure that the collaborative approach came together in the design.

“It was a combination between consultation and a complete dictatorship,” says Friesen. “When our ideas began to crystallize, we would ask for opinions about a wide range of options. Between the users committee and more importantly, extensive consultation in the initial stages, almost all of the decisions we made turned out to be right.”

These decisions resulted in attracting a large group of scientists to the CCBR for its research environment of communication and collaboration. In turn, major collaborative grants from Genome Canada and CFI were stimulated by the proximity of the people in this building. Recruitment and retention of additional biologists, geneticists, chemists, pharmacists, computer scientists, physicists, and engineers followed. And finally, publicity in significant science and research publications put the building’s science on the international research map.

Three Wrongs Make a Right

As with all buildings, there were a few issues that required retrofitting after the building was occupied.

“We decided not to install any natural gas and that was a mistake because we had to end up retrofitting some of the floors,” says Friesen. “I still think we were right because I have done microbiological work for 20 years without an open flame on the bench except for the occasional gas canister. However, that was not acceptable by some of the scientists and they are the ones who have to live there.”

There are two floors that are connected through an external courtyard and not by an internal staircase; they may be connected with a spiral staircase at some point. Although the ambient noise level is somewhat high and the lighting is not up to the level initially requested, they are adequate, says Friesen.

“The bottom line is we have a fully functional, fully integrated, very flexible building, and still one that is beautiful,” says Friesen. “In the end, it’s a building that says, ‘science matters,’ according to the judges for the Lubetkin Prize.”

By Lisa Brown

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