This is a project where cinema has influenced the design
direction, and has been used effectively to establish the dual nature of the
project, namely the public face and the core function , ‘research’.
Research in the IT industry is very niche when compared to
the industry at large. The corporate vision of this medical imaging research
company was to encourage the creative spirit that is required to take
technology to its furthest boundaries. This involved thinking out of the box,
getting under the skin, and laying bare, in a situation that is always
challenging. The design attitude was to create such an atmosphere reflecting
the character and need of this group of people.
Influences from cinema have played a big role in impacting
the making of the place. Stanley Kubric’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and Ridley
Scott’s “Blade Runner”, are the primary sources of influence. These have been
in themselves path breakers, in their genre, changing the face of cinema
forever.
Pristine white curvilinear forms, and highlighted textured
surfaces, bare concrete and brick, open services, give it the si-fi-industrial
aesthetic, an imagery strongly associated with been on the frontiers of
science, where no one man has gone before.