Playing a leading role in scientific discovery and material innovation, the National Graphene Institute in Manchester is a research and incubator centre dedicated to the development of the ‘wonder material’ graphene, first isolated at the university in 2004. The high-performance building was carefully designed to meet the precise technical needs of the researchers that use it. It features a striking exterior veil of black mirror stainless steel panels, each one containing thousands of perforations that represent equations used in graphene research.