Alcon Novartis Dining Facility

The Challenge

A typical dining facility backs the kitchen area to one side of the building, but Novartis asked for a centralized kitchen with dining areas that wrap around it. That way diners can enjoy the view through the glass walls from every angle and employees in the surrounding buildings have a view inside. The transparent building makes the centrally-located facility appealing from all angles, but glass walls pose challenges to managing the thermal and visual effects of sunlight.

The Design Solution

HKS’ design enables 270 degrees of dining areas on the perimeter of the building’s interior and includes various seating layouts to promote meetings of all sizes. The centralized kitchen is separated from infrastructure used by other elements, like bathrooms, to stretch the dining area.

Managing the sun’s effect couldn’t be done the same way on all sides of the building. The south side of the building has a protruding shade, angled upward, that has been precisely shaped to block just enough sunlight at specific times of the day. The north side’s glass face is affixed with vertical blades of laminated glass that are carefully spaced to provide shade while preserving the view in and out of the building.

The Design Impact

Nearly 500 researchers who study various aspects of medical technologies now have a place to congregate. These shared spaces are vital for science facilities because research is becoming more interdisciplinary — a specialist in one lab could have the solution to a problem that scientists are grappling with in another.

The 21,000 square foot space amplifies collaboration opportunities between the administration and research areas of the private campus, promoting spontaneous conversation between scientists, technicians and researchers.