Designing a centre for scientists working in nanotechnology, Feilden Clegg Bradley faced a rigid technical brief

To the uninitiated the floor plans of Feilden Clegg Bradley's new London Centre for Nanotechnology are opaque in the extreme.

It is none too easy to imagine what goes on in areas designated 'Specialised Probe', 'Bioelectrochemistry and Nanoparticle Synthesis' and 'Diamond Electronics Laboratories' not to mention the various spaces identified only by obscure acronyms.

But despite their unfamiliar labels, the basic space requirements were quite simple. This is essentially a cross-disciplinary building with eight levels of laboratory and office spaces for academics from the electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine departments of UCL and Imperial College London to work together on nanotechnology research projects. It will house 100 staff, including 25 'principal investigators'.

The major challenges the architect faced related to the brief's taxing servicing requirements and the need to provide a supremely uncontaminated research environment. Acting as principal client throughout the project's five-year evolution has been the centre's director, Professor Gabriel Aeppli [UCL Medicine and Physics & Astronomy]. …

What is impressive about the result is that despite these technical pressures and a demanding site, the building is highly architectural and feels both confident and delicate.

An uncontaminated environment was essential because nanotechnology deals with materials and devices at the nanoscale. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre so we are talking very small scale indeed. …

It is now predicted that the global market for nanotechnologies will reach $1 trillion or more within 20 years.

The tiny scale of the technology means that experiments can be completely thrown out by the slightest vibration or interference from practically anything. 'A speck of dust is like a meteor for these people,' says project architect Tim Hall. …

In many respects it would make most sense to carry out this type of research in a deep bunker on bedrock miles from any other activity, or at least in a one- or two-storey location on the city's edge, but this would mean missing out on the positive benefits of a central London location and close proximity to all the other research facilities and expertise of UCL, which is the largest of more than 50 colleges and institutes that make up the federal University of London. …

Professor Aeppli explains that at UCL the design objective was "to promote interactions", with the staircase seen as the "social spine" of the building. It was important that groups of scientists were not effectively "locked up on one level" of a building with lots of small floorplates. The social spaces around the stair are "extremely welcoming" and aim to "draw people out" of the labs and encourage informal conversations and connection with the street outside. In some instances there are windows between one lab and another. The lab at the front of the building at second basement level has a double-height area with a window to a lab on the floor above, as well as a window to Gordon Street. There are also windows between some of the labs and the stairway. …

What about the facade? Does the building attempt to express what goes on inside? Grimshaw's Paul O'Gorman Building for the Institute of Cancer Services for UCL (on site round the corner) will have terracotta louvres which can be rotated individually to give the illusion of a three-dimensional wave. The firm says this device "refers to the building's function through the emblematic position of the waveform in modern biology, physics and chemistry". …

At the London Centre for Nanotechnology, Hall sees the moire effects of the facade as consistent with the exploration of small-scale repetitive pattern inside and as emblematic of the work that it will house. …

The fact that the building is in a conservation area and that a deliberate decision was made to conform to the traditional tripartite facade division has had a big impact on its appearance. It has a Portland stone base lining up with the physics building next door. It also strives to give UCL a 'front door' on Gordon Street, something that Dixon Jones' forthcoming Panopticon building, which will house all UCL's art and museum collections, will support. This is to be built just a little south of the Nanotechnology Centre and will link the rather bleak north-south axis through to the relaxed atmosphere of the main courtyard addressed by the university's original William Wilkins-designed building.

Catherine Croft, 'Europaconcorsi', 6 March 2006