Location: Christchurch, New Zealand.

Architect: Warren and Mahoney + Woods Bagot.

The Lincoln University AgResearch Joint Facility in New Zealand is a world-class hub for agricultural science, designed to break down barriers to progress and encourage collaboration between research, science, and technology. The facility is driven by the need for regular, stable, and highly adaptable space for laboratory spaces, as well as intensive social interaction. The entire complex is embedded within the landscape, as an integral part of it, rather than an imposition on the natural context. The facility is informed by people, place, and local culture, with the concept of whakapapa, the Māori world view, used to map important historical movement corridors throughout the hub and campus.

The facility is designed to encourage connections between its 630 scientists and 770 staff, with laboratories transformed into glass-walled areas, flexible, informal learning zones, and interconnected areas for spontaneous interaction. The building frames two central courtyards with informal and formal characters, and a central café space where all occupants can eat together. The facility also reverses the pollution of nearby Lake Ellesmere through sustainable engineering, with a stormwater filtration system offering a fresh water source for the lake. The facility is informed by people, place, and local culture, with the Tukutuku-shaped diamond structural system, column carvings designed by a local Māori artist, and the plant roofscape all telling legends of the local landscape and fauna. The Lincoln University and AgResearch Joint Facility is a progressive model for industry collaboration, scheduled for completion in 2020.