VISION 50 — UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
So the lab is really about using the best materials
for the task?
Our work is concentrated, more lyrical and so glass
isn’t looked at as a material or result in itself. If it’s a
round building, if it needs a round window, that’s not
about the glass so much as glass supporting the idea.
A lot of designers get excited about materials and want
to express the material itself in the building. I’d like to
think we do the exact opposite. We want to introduce
interesting ideas and theories and make buildings
express those ideas and the glass is a means to an
end rather than an end in itself.
What do you feel about the capacity of glass to
provide what the British architect Peter Cook
refers to as the ‘glister, glisten and gleam’ of glass
to generate the lively, rather than dead surface.
That’s right and that will vary on the time of day and
weather and sometimes it’ll be a complete mirror, like
our ocular windows at JMR. Sometimes it can be if it’s
early in the evening and the lights are on and it’s
completely transparent. That’s why it’s special.
Apart from the health benefits of opening interiors to
natural light, glazing can liberate and visually, if not
physically, release occupants into the landscape.
That’s right. I think what you’re referring to is the framing.
It’s broadly used and misused, but framing is incredibly
important with windows and glazing delineates a line in
space in an interior what you see when you look out. In
this case JMR’s a perfect example in that it has a high-ish
window sill, plus there are lab benches everywhere, and
quite a low-ish window head. But that view is enjoyed
mostly by people sitting on stools, so that’s the stool-
height strip, if you like, for up to 100 students looking at
the microscope then looking out the window. That’s the
focus of action.