Laboratory and Logistics Building / Mikkelsen Architects

Architects: Mikkelsen Architects
Location: Copenhague, Denmark
Collaborators: Niras, EYP
Area: 10000.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Hampus Berndtson

Text description provided by the architects. The 9 500 m² laboratory and logistics building houses shared research facilities and is home to the Clinical Biochemistry Division, which annually supplies around nine million blood tests to the hospital and GPs. In addition, the building is made up of test rooms, laboratories, offices, as well as a warehouse with associated logistic and storage functions. Various articles are distributed to the rest of the hospital via tunnels running from the basement area.

The wide staircase that winds up through the middle of the structure forms the backbone of the building – and acts as a social, fluid space that provides coherence and overview. The building’s central staircase allows for interaction and is a life-giving axis that with a generous supply of daylight allows access to the individual research units, while also creating pockets for recreation and informal meetings.

Daylight and the working environment are in focus – the moveable exterior shutters can be controlled individually and give the researchers the possibility of creating their own daylight environments according to diverse work situations. Collective control of the moveable shutters makes it possible to ”close” the building when it isn’t in use and thereby avoid unnecessary heating or cooling costs. At the same time, the building is dynamic, in the way that it adjusts to internal needs and the changing climate over time.

The building is an external service organ, which means that there is constant activity and a flow of visitors day and night. It is our intention to make the building’s various activities transparent, as well as being visible from outside, thereby contributing to the experience and quality of the outdoor areas.

The new laboratory and logistics building is closely associated with Nyrup’s listed buildings from 1913, and with its simplified and precise geometry displays respect for the special qualities of the location. The building has open, active façades that give us an impression of the laboratory and logistic functions. The façades are created with moveable light-filtering shutters, where reliefs and alternating transparency create diverse effects depending on the time of day and year. The metal façade and its meticulous attention to detail harmonise with the rich features of the listed buildings, and are made in dark, anodised and stained aluminium, which with their warmth and colouring work beautifully with the red brick in the original part of the hospital.

Mikkelsen Architects had a desire to create a laboratory and logistics building, which gathers the laboratory functions in an architectural whole and solves various technical and infrastructural challenges, while providing the framework for a dynamic and well-run workplace. The building brings together many different users and functions, and it has been crucial to create a structure that is clear and understandable for all user groups.

It is an exciting challenge to create a building that acts as a logistical and warehouse facility dealing with heavy truck traffic and goods on the ground floor, as well as the demands of the other floors and their research and laboratory facilities, where the working environment for researchers and other staff members is on a completely different scale, with special requirements for sectioning, equipment and sound levels.

The new laboratory and logistics building brings together research activities that have previously been spread out, thus supporting interaction across professional groups while simultaneously promoting knowledge sharing and synergy between the different departments.