Inspired by Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners
12/08/2021.
[Jerusalem] Israel
metalocus, CARLOS GONZÁLEZ
metalocus, CARLOS GONZÁLEZ
Foster + Partners after a long process (the project was commissioned in 2010) has recently completed the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, a new research building, situated in the heart of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Once the new tram link to the city center is opened, the building will act as a gateway to the university.
Once the new tram link to the city center is opened, the building will act as a gateway to the university.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Studio Harel Gilboa.
Site plan. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
Ground floor plan. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
Upper floor plan. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
South elevation. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
West elevation. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
Cross section. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
Longitudinal section. Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences by Foster + Partners.
The design developed by Foster + Partners, for this pioneering research facility for the scientific exploration of the brain, features in upper levels house a set of rooms and laboratories arranged in two parallel blocks an open central courtyard. At ground floor there are teaching facilities, a 200-seat auditorium, a library, café and a publicly accessible gallery for the display of art related to the brain. At the heart of the scheme the patio opens onto the landscape and introduces an axis of citrus trees with a linear fountain.
Outside, its distinctive façade is a metaphoric representation of complexity neurological brain structure, as drawn by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal at the beginning of the 20th century.
Outside, its distinctive façade is a metaphoric representation of complexity neurological brain structure, as drawn by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal at the beginning of the 20th century.
Project description by Foster + Partners
Situated in the heart of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences is a pioneering research facility for the scientific exploration of the brain. It has been carefully sited amid the natural rugged setting of the campus. Once the new tram link to the city center is opened, the building will act as a gateway to the university – its dynamic social spaces and laboratory facilities are designed to attract exceptional scientists, as well as to foster an interest in the center’s research activities within the wider community.
“Understanding the enigma of the brain is the most challenging endeavor of the 21st century and research in this area is vital to the quality of life for millions of people. This is one of the most innovative projects of its kind at an Israeli university, with several laboratory complexes that are highly flexible to anticipate and accommodate future change, arranged around an open central courtyard that is at the heart of the scheme.”
Spencer de Grey, Head of Design, Foster + Partners
The building is arranged as two parallel wings around this central courtyard. The upper levels house twenty-eight highly flexible laboratories linked by social hubs, which are conceived to encourage informal interaction and the exchange of ideas between students and staff. At ground floor, there are teaching facilities, a 200-seat auditorium, a library, café and a publicly accessible gallery for the display of art related to the brain. The courtyard at the heart of the scheme unites these different functions, establishes new circulation routes through the campus and draws the greenery of the surrounding landscape into the building. Planted with citrus trees and a man-made stream along its length, the courtyard forms a quiet, reflective space and a cool microclimate, which can be further mediated by a retractable ETFE roof.
“The project has a progressive social agenda that has been applied at an urban scale, creating a center for research and learning that is truly inclusive. The new building is located just off the main pedestrian spine of the University and its façade invites exploration, drawing people inside to learn about the research activities.”
Darron Haylock, Partner, Foster + Partners
In the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the building anticipated the importance of health and wellbeing with a design that is underpinned by the principles of biophilia. The central courtyard, open balconies and circulation all contribute towards a healthy research campus. The center’s progressive environmental strategy makes use of passive techniques to naturally reduce energy use. Local materials, such as Jerusalem stone, are used where possible, and the building is orientated east-west to reduce solar gain. The upper three levels are shaded by a cast aluminum screen, with a non-repetitive representation of the early twentieth century drawings by Spanish neuroscientist, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, illustrating the neurological brain structure. Further passive cooling of the building is provided by translucent ETFE canopies to the west and east, which form distinctive markers for the main entrances.
More information
Architects
Project team
David Nelson, Spencer de Grey, Stefan Behling, Darron Haylock, Matthew Hayhurst, Parul Singh, Kadri Kaldam, Apostolos Despotidis, Joana Santos, Josef Musil. Foster + Partners Engineering Team.- Roger Ridsdill Smith, Xiaonian Duan, Piers Heath.
Collaborators
Collaborating Architect.- YBGSNA - Yuval Baer Galit Shifman Nathan Architects.
Structural Engineer.- Labaton & Partners.
Environmental Engineer.- EET Engineers.
Landscape Architect.- Moria-Sekely Landscape Architect.
Lighting Engineer.- Moshe Levy .
Client
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Area
15,724m².
Dates
Appointment.- 2010.
Completion.- 2020.
Photography
NORMAN FOSTER
Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.
Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.
Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.
Categories
Our selection
