Spatial logic of scientific research: an exploratory and quantitative analysis of 42 scientific research buildings sited in America and Europe

ABSTRACT

Since the nineteenth-century devolution of natural philosophy into disciplines, scientific activity has expanded from single-disciplined research to comprehensive research. The flow of information between different research teams makes scientific research and its places increasingly social, which is no longer limited to the closed laboratory workbench. Reviewing the literature, we found that the development of scientific research buildings experienced a transition from efficiency to openness. And the new organization of research communities and its demand for space put forward higher requirements for scientific research buildings. To deeply explore the design trends of scientific research buildings at this stage, the sample database is established using space syntax and K-means clustering algorithm software to quantitatively analyze spatial layouts of 42 scientific research buildings worldwide from the perspective of sociology and innovation, clustered into five categories. Each category shows a different tendency in terms of accessibility, visibility, and the proportion of public space, and the different spatial configurations and openness somehow reflect the attitude of the research organization or group towards the use of space.

KEYWORDS:

• Scientific research buildings
• space syntax
• spatial configuration
• clustering algorithm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).