The Role of Architecture in Shaping New Scientific Cultures: The Case of Nanoscience

The architecture of science has come to develop quickly and on everincreasing scales during the last decades. Buildings of science configure the identity of both scientists and scientific fields, but the symbolic and functional burden of these types of buildings also seem to increase as buildings of science make up whole urban districts and are expected to be part of the branding of entire cities. In this research project we aim at investigating how the design of the new generation scientific buildings and infrastructures has an impact on the current development of science and scientific culture. The special focus is on recent high-tech architectural developments in the domain of nanoscience. Exploring how these facilities for science of excellence is a common investment, of symbolic importance for universities and society, this project will also relate this discussion to the relation between architectural design and the day-to-day practices of scientific work. The project will map the existing planning and architectural strategies employed in developing new types of scientific architecture, with a focus on the two case studies Lund, Sweden (MAX IV; ESS, and Science Village Scandinavia) and Manchester UK (The Graphene City). Through these cases we investigate the multitude of ways in which built form and meaning (understood at different levels of scale) make a difference in scientific research and cultures, and reshuffles the relations between science and society.