TEN Arquitectos/ Enrique Norten

The location and geology of the site-an empty field with a fault line deep below-gave rise to the metaphor that defines the form of the building: an inscribed line divides the program in half, with the laboratories on one side and the administrative and auditorium spaces on the other. This constructed fault line forms an intimate civic space that connects the different programs. The project is nestled into a built-up artificial topography, a new terrain that manifests the nature of the work inside the institution. The laboratories are absorbed into the site, evident predominantly as a series of terraces that modulate transitions between interior and exterior, lab and field.