Novartis Campus – Physic Garden 3

A laboratory building by the Pritzker prize-winner

Volume 14 in the large series of monographs

Meticulously designed and linen-bound

The latest volume in the series is devoted to the laboratory building by Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. As he himself says, for him the wall is the pivotal supporting element in a building, and therefore stone is the most important building material. Yet the design for the seven-floor laboratory building on the Novartis Campus in Basel envisaged an almost transparent structure. It is located directly beside the building by Alvaro Siza and linked to it by a spacious underground passage. Research projects are carried on in parallel in both buildings.

There are three brick stele by Portuguese artist Pedro Cabrita Reis in the laboratory’s high-ceilinged entrance foyer.

The essay on the building is written by architect Akos Moravanszky, the essay on the art work by art historian Jacqueline Burchkardt. The photographic essay is by Paolo Rosselli from Milan.

About the editor:
Dr. Ulrike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus is a scientific assistant at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at the ETH Zürich, editor of the journal werk, bauen + wohnen, and founder-director of the Schweizerische Architekturmuseum Basel.