Part one of two (read part two)
 
Bringing daylight into laboratories is a mixed bag for architects. Like any other occupants, lab researchers tend to prefer sunny, inspiring workplaces - with a view, preferably. But ambient conditions inside research spaces must be precisely calibrated, ruling out variable solar loading and light levels.
 
So how did architects at Gould Evans and Lord Aeck Sargent take a best-practice biotechnology/nanotechnology facility for Arizona State University and "turn it inside out," giving scientists stunning views of the hot Sonoran desert through clear glass curtain wall - and giving visitors a tantalizing window into cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary research? The short answer is solar control, say the designers, and the result, The Biodesign Institute, stands as a scientific showplace and an impressive new eastern gateway to the campus.

 
Endorsing openness, light, and outdoor views were university president Michael M. Crow and research director Dr. Stephen A. Johnston, who believed having "science on display" would reinforce the school's reputation and help recruit and retain world-class talent. Crow also believed that an open lab environment would encourage collaboration and entrepreneurial spirit.
 
The resulting building concept organizes functional areas into bar-like masses: Open labs occupy the most opaque zone, flanked by offices and meeting areas, all converging at a three-story atrium running north-south and topped by a large, continuous skylight. Combined with its glazed eastern exposure and the relatively open, transparent interiors, daylight penetration is very high for a research setting - about 50 foot-candles of indirect light reach the first level, 20 feet below grade. Sloped ceilings also help draw light deep into work areas.
 
Integrating solar control
To ensure optimum functionality, several solar-control concepts - both passive and active - were integral to the design concept from its earliest stages. Beyond the siting and orientation of the building, the detailing of the envelope was informed by the need to balance illumination from skylights and the glass façade. In consultation with engineers from Nysan, a leading provider of solar-control solutions that is part of Hunter Douglas, the architects selected an interior multifunction louver of extruded aluminum for shading on the curtain-wall façades. The louvers span the wall's 11-foot bays, coupled through holes drilled in glass fins to achieve long, uninterrupted runs. The 5-inch-deep shades were detailed with spring end-caps for field adjustment as well as detachable harnesses for maintenance.
 
The motorized shading technology itself combines passive and active solar control. Louvers for the upper half of each floor's 15-foot-high window wall are controlled by photocell and off-the-shelf sun-tracking software. The lower half, while also automated to respond to solar position, works on manual control by the occupant. By clicking an icon on their computer desktops, researchers can quickly change louver position as preferred - and even override the upper louvers to accommodate sun-sensitive research.
 
"Sometimes solar control is not beautiful, but this has a very clean, very mechanized, almost European feel to it. The shade became an integral part of the design," says Jay Silverberg AIA, a Gould Evans principal. "There's something very beautiful about a building that moves and breathes. Here in the desert, it's seen as something new." (The clean look is further enhanced in some areas by monolithic, white Techstyle® acoustical ceilings, also from Hunter Douglas.)
 
Silverberg says that for cost reasons, his team worked to minimize the number of motors needed. The sun-tracking controls, on the other hand, did not add significantly to the motorized system's installed cost.
 
Toward lighter labs?
In addition to "inside out," the design also turns conventional lab design on its head, says Larry Lord, FAIA, founding principal of Lord, Aeck & Sargent in Atlanta, which specializes in high-end labs. "The desert sun is ferocious," says Lord, admitting some initial wariness of using skylights and an all-glass eastern exposure. "But with the hard work everyone did, we were able to balance the light, and I'd use it again. It's not harsh light; it brings visual warmth into the whole interior."
 
In the evening, Lord adds, the payoff is dramatic: "It's all lit up and you see science at work inside."
 
For the architects, the real achievement is advancing the laboratory typology. The Biodesign Institute creates a very public showcase out of a highly functional, highly secure lab. As a result, the facility becomes a bridge between campus and community while providing its occupants with an open, stimulating and highly social place to work.
 
As Silverberg puts it, "What's interesting is that solar control allows you to transcend ideas of image and character."
 
A subsequent article reviews phase two of the Arizona Biodesign project, which features a customized bank of wood sun louvers.
 
Writer Chris Sullivan is a trained architect, consultant, and former editor of Architecture magazine.