A polygon as the jewel of systems biology

A polygon will be home to the systems biologists of ETH Zurich in the future. The polygonal teaching and research facility will be built by 2020 on the Schällemätteli area in Basel, where it will stand directly next to the two university clinics and the Biozentrum and Pharmazentrum of the University of Basel.

Through the relocation away from the Rosental area, where the ETH Zurich Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) has been located on a temporary basis since 2007, the BSSE is moving even closer to Basel’s Life Sciences. The Schällemätteli area, where the women’s hospital once stood, is to be expanded to a contemporary Life Sciences campus in the coming years.

“The new location has the advantage that our researchers will be in the immediate proximity of the Biozentrum and clinical research, which can only promote exchange between ETH and the University of Basel,” said Roman Boutellier, Vice President of Human Resources and Infrastructure of ETH Zurich, presently in Basel, where the canton of Basel-Stadt, the University of Basel and ETH Zurich presented the new building at a press conference.

The ‘Fünfeck’ (pentagon) was designed by Nickl & Partner from Munich. The architects Christine Nickl-Weller, Hans Nickl and Gerhard Eckl won the competition between the universities, held by the Basel Department of Public Works and Transport, in which 17 other selected teams participated. The jury’s decision was unanimous.

Communication as a design principle

Two aspects, in particular, convinced the jury of the winning project, called ‘540 degrees’: on the one hand, the way the building integrates in the campus and, on the other hand, how it arranges the rooms inside for scientific use and supports operations. The jury particularly liked the way the Munich architects spread the laboratories and offices of the professors across six floors and lined them up along the transparent facades. “The mix of theoretical and experimental professorships works well,” the jury states in its report.

This aspect is very important for the further development of the department, says Renato Paro, Professor of Biosystems, who represented the BSSE on the jury. “It is key for an interdisciplinary research field such as systems biology that the architecture promotes communication between the researchers,” he explains.

Paro adds that the BSSE has focused on expanding its core competencies in experimental and synthetic biology in recent years with scientists who work theoretically. Their mathematical know-how is in demand for analysing experimental data and modelling biological processes.

For Drazenka Dragila-Salis, Director of ETH Buildings and member of the jury, the ‘Fünfeck’ interlaces the campus with the neighbourhood in a very enlightening way. “The Nickl & Partner design forms an organic whole, whose architecture generates a sense of trust in teaching and research,” she says. “ETH is gaining an excellent space for top research and Basel a city planning jewel for its Life Sciences campus.”

Courtyard becomes pedestrian section

A ‘communicative character’ also runs through the design of the ‘Fünfeck’; winding and open staircases connect the floors. In addition to shared spaces, the ground floor is also home to seminar rooms as well as workstations for students attending a course in biotechnology at the BSSE.

The entire building is built around a central courtyard. This atrium is designed like a pedestrian section. It starts at the main entrance on the southern edge of the campus and opens up towards the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, which is symbolical for the collaboration of ETH with the University of Basel.

Some 400 to 500 employees from 18 professorships will work in the new building in the future. The department currently has 15 professorships and 300 employees. The six assistant professorships with tenure track alone will increase the need for space in the near future, as their research groups are still being established.

Infrastructure is being updated

The laboratory equipment and technology platforms are important for the planning: flexible architecture is crucial for research areas such as systems biology and synthetic biology, where technologies and experimental arrangements can change quickly. It must be possible to convert laboratory rooms, for instance, at any time, which will be easier on the Schällemätteli than in the current BSSE building, which was built in the 1960s.

A GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) laboratory will be installed, for instance. A laboratory like this fulfils both the research laboratory standards and those of clinical laboratories, where patient studies may be carried out. In addition, there will be clean rooms for engineering-focused developments such as nano tools or lab-on-a-chip technology, or genome sequencing and stem cell analysis systems.