The New Architecture of Science

The New Architecture of Science explores how the architecture of advanced nanoscience labs affects the way scientists think, conduct experiments, interact and collaborate. The unique design of the National Graphene Institute in Manchester, UK sheds light on the new generation of 21st century science laboratories. Weaving together two tales of this building, lead scientist and one of the designers, Kostya Novoselov, and architectural anthropologist, Albena Yaneva, combine an analysis of its distinctive design features with ethnographic observation of the practices of scientists, facility managers, technicians, administrators and house service staff. Capturing simultaneously the complex technical infrastructure and the variability of human experiences that it facilitates, contemporary laboratory buildings are shown to be vital settings for the active shaping of new research habits and ways of thinking, ultimately leading to discovery and socio-technical innovations.Related Link(s)Contents: ForewordAcknowledgementsPreamble[M] Introduction: The Making of the Graphene Building + [E] Experience of Design[M] Location, Location, Location + [E] Experiencing Movement[M] Square Shape[M] Vibration[M] Two for the Price of One + [E] Experiencing the Hidden Building[M] Solutions Dictated by the Process[M] Design of the Storage Rooms + [E] Experiencing the Flows[M] The Key Lab: Clean Room + [E] Experiencing Clean Lab Work[M] Variety of Labs[M] Transportation Routes + [E] Experiencing Circulation[M] Other Functions: Meetings, Conferences, Events + [E] Experiencing Communication[M] How We Ended Up with the Roof Garden + [E] Experiencing Breakout[M] Atria, Coffee and Writable Walls + [E] Experiencing the Social Life of Science [M] Veil Design + [E] Experiencing the Building Envelope[M] Future Services + [E] Experiencing GrowthConclusions: A New Approach to Science ArchitectureNGI Floor PlansIndex
Readership: Academics, professionals and students from architecture, urban studies, science and technology studies (STS) programs, and the sciences; general public. Architecture of Science;Design and Urban Studies;Science Communication;National Graphene Institute, Manchester;Kostya Novoselov;Graphene0Key Features:The book captures an array of participants in design and in the use of scientific buildings. In addition to the “usual suspects” featured in studies of scientific design (the scientists and the architects), we encounter lab technicians, facility managers, gas room and storage room technicians, porters, admin people, experimental officers, house attendants, events managers. Picturing the world of the graphene building as inhabited by all these “unsung heroes” provides a novel (more inclusive) understanding of how science architecture functions.The study of the NGI help us to successfully redefine the very meaning of multidisciplinarity. Far from being a discursive exchange of ideas, multidisciplinarity, we witness in this book, emerges while sharing spaces and equipment, rubbing shoulders at the lab benches, reading results together or writing on the black walls. This is a novel aspect compared to the many accounts that focus on communication and collaboration as based on purely subjective interactionsThe book illustrates a new methodological approach for understanding the architecture of the new generation of scientific buildings (that is, a slow ethnography that pays equal attention to human and nonhuman participants in science labs). It advocates an equal attention to the intricate design and technical infrastructure and to the variability of human experience that it facilitates