Can visual arts stimulate creativity in the science laboratory? A new biochemistry building for the University of Oxford might provide the answer, writes Georgina Ferry (Nature 457, 541; 2009). From the article:
“The prime purpose of the art project is to create a stunning physical environment for research. “The senior people [in the university] grasped that if you are trying to recruit the best people in the world, walking them through a building that is dark and dingy is not the best way to get them,” says Sansom. Time will tell if money spent on art gives a significant return in scientific discovery."
A 360-degree interactive view of the building can be found here.
See also Martin Kemp‘s article Laudable Labs? (Nature 395, 849; 1998). "You can read much about the history of science and of architecture in the changing styles and materials used in the building of laboratories. It’s a story of fashion, functionality and financial constraints…..We are all too familiar with the messy clutter of disparate laboratory buildings squeezed into congested university campuses. The lab is a major building type, yet we have come to expect little of it — other than as providing functional spaces which almost invariably prove to be inadequate as soon as they are occupied. It would be better if we cared more about the buildings’ effects on our visual ambience."