The Biological Science Technology and Research Building

The Biological Science Technology and Research (BioSTaR) building will provide 9,500m²  of laboratory, small scale up and digital facilities to enable cutting-edge research and development (R&D) into sustainable food production, addressing global challenges around food security.

Designed to address ageing infrastructure, BioSTaR combines adaptability, sustainability, and connectivity to foster collaboration and innovation among researchers. The building’s thoughtful integration with the existing site and landscape ensures it not only enhances research capabilities but also strengthens the campus as a whole, creating a hub for scientific excellence.

An intensive process of user engagement established the importance of direct links between this new facility and two existing buildings on site, and was critical to uncovering the manner in which these connections could best benefit the community. The proposed design thus focusses largely on enhancing the broader connectivity of the campus, stimulating innovation through interaction, and forming a cluster of scientific excellence.

Central to the design is an open front-of-house area, including a town hall and informal meeting spaces, linking to the primary circulation routes to spread interaction throughout the building.

Exteriorly, the orientation towards one of the existing buildings creates an outdoor social commons which encourages spontaneous collaboration, while the addition of a Winter Garden linking BioSTaR to its other neighbour to the south provides shared breakout spaces and enhanced connectivity, reinforcing the sense of community.

Broadly, however, the true value of this building lies in the global challenges its work addresses. By enabling ground breaking research into sustainable food production, BioSTaR contributes to a broader mission to solve world hunger and resource depletion.

Economically, BioSTaR solidifies Syngenta’s position as a leader in agricultural innovation, supporting local jobs and driving economic activity through advanced research outputs. Socially, the facility creates an inclusive working environment for their high-performance teams by providing spaces such as a cycle and shower facilities, a sensory room, high levels of natural daylight, and a variety of external working spaces. More broadly, the community atmosphere created through the town hall space, landscaped outdoor event and pedestrian areas, and the connection to adjacent buildings not only promotes innovation, but also supports the wellbeing of the building’s occupants.

The outdoor areas are also designed to deliver a strong impact. The substantial amount of landscaping on this plot has been separated into 6 categories, each targeting a different type of social activity. The ‘Plaza’ and the ‘Terraces’ areas provide outdoor social green space for formal events and more informal interaction, the ‘Gallery’ and the ‘Workology Hub’ provide larger scale and smaller scale working zones for individuals and teams, while the ‘Campus Green’ and the ‘Creek Bed’ cater more towards the promotion of biodiversity and solitary connection to nature through natural walking paths.

Sustainability is at the core of BioSTaR’s mission, both in its research efforts towards sustainable food production, and in its physical parameters as a low-carbon building. As a significant upgrade to the previous facilities, this new building incorporates energy-efficient features, such as optimised floor-to-floor heights, a central light well for natural illumination, and robust solar control measures, reducing energy use and operational costs.

The promotion of biodiversity and sustainable management of runoff was also a major consideration of the building climate portfolio, where biodiversity net gain is achieved through thoughtfully designed landscapes that integrate native planting and preserve the sites existing topography to minimise local biome impact.