Life Sciences Building, Ben-Gurion University
Beer-Sheva, Israel
A gene for the next millennium
The School of Life Sciences in Ben Gurion University of the Negev is conceived as a link between the older undergraduate campus and the newer Institute for Advanced Studies at the periphery.
The complex is comprised of three distinct buildings with related functions. Their proximity both allows for shared equipment and supports the formal and informal exchange of ideas.
The buildings frame an intimate series of green outdoor spaces leading into the central area of the school and culminating in an enclosed sloping garden, carved into the land. This sequence continues within the interior public spaces and intensifies the sense of belonging to the school itself and to the campus beyond.
The central garden develops a scale of a large meeting room or sanctuary. It is contained within high walls, housing faculty offices, which shield the green against the desert sun.
Shadow filled galleries and arcades circumscribe the inner space and mediate between it and the research facilities.
A greeting hall with garden views serves as the heart of the activities of the MA students, and a foyer at the other extremity of the garden serves the BA students. This foyer extends the full height of the teaching lab building, and forms the visual and physical connection between the enclosed garden and the campus green beyond.
An emphasis on in-between, shaded and protected spaces, via ramps, bridges, arcades and porticoes, links the buildings to each other, and initiates a three dimensional movement pattern which diffuses their actual boundaries.
