A joint proposal by Ricky Liu & Associates (Taiwan) and CUH2A, Inc., Architecture Engineering Planning (USA) has won the international competition for the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control Complex (TWCDC) located in the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park in Hsinchu County.

The ‘Biolab Squadron’ by Studio Nicoletti Associati is a shortlisted entry which received a honorable mention. The project consists of two units of laboratories protected and sealed within two similar elements evoking the ‘Nautilus’ shell of different sizes.

In nature, the interior of this shell is an authentic marvel formed by a sequence of interconnected chambers, lined with beautiful mother-of-pearl, whose geometry is a perfect logarithmic spiral. Such a masterpiece of nature hides one of the most horrible looking cephalopod molluscs.

The two shells, forming the Biolab Squadron, are a metaphoric example of the highest formal and technological sophistication of the most advanced laboratories conceived and the extremely harmful pathogenic viruses of our planet which are studied within themselves.

The Biolab Squadron outer skin pattern is made of interlacing geometric incisions reproducing the four conventional symbols attributed to the DNA sequence of the bacteria being studied. The result is a surface perfectly homogenous and uniform in its overall material, but mysteriously engraved by symbols illegible by most people.
A sense of arcane volumetric unity bearing an enigmatic and indecipherable message emanates from this surface treatment.

This effect reproduces what the common people feel towards the terrible pathogenic agents. They are invisible to the naked eye and can be really observed only under powerful electronic microscopes or when they cause devastating effects on populations.

By engraving the genetic code of the most destructive viruses of our era on it’s Centers for Disease Control Complex building’s skin, Taiwan is giving a clear Message to the world: EPIDEMIC PREVENTION IS A WAR THAT WE INTEND TO WIN.
The three-story ‘C’ shaped Administration Center is conceived like an ‘artificial hill’ covered and protected by a green cloak with different kinds of grass and bushes which provide a perfect insulation and blending with the landscape.
The internal layout of the three-story Administration Center recalls the geometry of a micro-organisms cultivation visible under a microscope. The various functional elements, located on each floor, seem to float like real cells in a homogeneous fluid representing, in the building, the connective and social tissue between different functions.
Within this metaphoric frame, the Administration Center forms a kind of ‘tail’ or ’scourge’ with respect to the two large buildings of the laboratories housed within the two Biolab shells.

Further information and more pictures: www.twcdc.cpami.gov.tw.