Designed around research, collaboration, education and public engagement, the arresting exterior with its structural perimeter of pre-cast columns, contains a hive of internal activities. The building is planned around three multi-level galleries, each containing a series of voids and stairs and suspended meeting spaces that showcase the activity of the Institute’s multiple research communities.

Sharing the building with the Centre for Cancer Research, the University conducts its science teaching here. Teaching laboratories are co-located with tutorial spaces and research facilities. The research and education spaces are designed such that each of the science communities are connected visually by light filled voids with diverse opportunities for collaboration. A theatrette enables regular meetings for the large research cohort, and opportunities for hosting events that draw local and international experts into the heart of the building.

Flexible, open plan labs wrap the perimeter open to views of the city and its parklands. The design reimagines the lab environment as a contemporary workplace. Natural light and vibrant colours offset the labs’ intrinsic clinical functionality. Married with passive strategies, innovative sustainable servicing solutions are tailored to the varying usage of labs and support spaces and together significantly reduce the building’s operating costs.

An enlightened brief encourages public engagement. Students, teachers, scientists, and visitors alike, all have access to the three levels of public amenities, making available areas to study, learn or relax. A ground floor café is a public meeting place as well as an informal working spaces for those teaching, researching, or studying in the building.

The Museum of Discovery (known as MOD) is a surprising and dynamic element of the building. A futuristic gallery, visible from the street, it is designed to engage passers-by and stimulate thinking of those who visit. Its displays are challenging, interactive, and technologically savvy, encouraging engagement and interaction. Rethinking the role of a traditional museum, MOD both presents new ideas with cutting-edge displays, provides customised workshop spaces and acts as a business incubator bring industry together with research.

MOD houses six programmable and curated galleries over two levels, with exhibits and content changed regularly. ‘’Science on a Sphere”, an illuminated 1.8 metre diameter globe, is MOD’s centrepiece, acting as a holographic sphere to project 2D or 3D content on the globe and visible at night passing along North Terrace.

The design of Uni SA’s Cancer Research Institute embraces the benefits of multi-disciplinary collaboration in the world of research. It goes much further than those immediately involved, reaching out to the wider community and making it irresistible for them to visit and be engaged.