LITHIUM ION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY: PORTLAND, OR
DRAWINGS
PROCESS
SITE
Research and Development facilities in the urban environments are uncommon, but at the incubator level, the urban environment is an ideal location. This company conducts research and development on lithium ion batteries to be used on products such as cell phones and chargers, which are heavily marketed to the urban population. Their exposure and demonstration capabilities are heightened in this location. This environment in particular is surrounded by working downtown professionals and college students. Majority of the research and development will take place in the clean room, labs, classrooms, offices and other collaborative spaces. Once the company runs with an idea, further production will take place in offsite production facilities.
The design scheme started by taking the surrounding strengths of solar, connectivity and landscape opportunities, developing those as three seperate schemes and then combining their strongpoints into one solid scheme that looks at the levels of transparency associated with collaboration in research and development. The final design is composed of three primary levels of transparency with the more opaque spaces being the heavy labs and manufacturing spaces, the semi-transparent spaces being offices, meeting rooms and classrooms and the most transparent spaces being purely public for demonstration and collaborative interaction.
The design scheme started by taking the surrounding strengths of solar, connectivity and landscape opportunities, developing those as three seperate schemes and then combining their strongpoints into one solid scheme that looks at the levels of transparency associated with collaboration in research and development. The final design is composed of three primary levels of transparency with the more opaque spaces being the heavy labs and manufacturing spaces, the semi-transparent spaces being offices, meeting rooms and classrooms and the most transparent spaces being purely public for demonstration and collaborative interaction.