Novartis Follows Biogen Idec, GlaxoSmithKline’s Footsteps With New State Of The Art Offices; Space Reflects “The Novartis Way Of Working”
August 29, 2014
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
HDR | Rice Daubney has revealed its plans for a new Novartis headquarters, to be located in Sydney, Australia, according to InfoLink. The Switzerland biopharmaceutical company is looking to create an environment that is conducive to productivity and collaboration. The company calls the concept “the Novartis way of working.”
The goal of the new headquarters is to bring all of the company’s branches together under one roof: Alcon, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz. The building design is tailored to suiting Novartis’ needs, which primarily surround the idea of having staff work closely together.
The building, which has a glass exterior, will have six stories. The overall concept of the building is a transparent rectangular box, which is meant to stand as a metaphor to Novartis’ dedication to fact-based science. Large parts of the building will also be composed of aluminum and timber. Ganellen is the project’s design and construction contractor.
The central portion of the building will include a café, lobby and Novartis museum. There will also be a roof garden on the top of the building.
The building will be finished by the end of 2015, and Novartis is looking to achieve 5 Star Green star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, and a 5 Star energy rating from the National Australian Built Environment Rating System.
Impressive Architecture Meets Science
Novartis will not be the first company to create a state-of-the-art headquarters. One company that’s already ahead of it is GlaxoSmithKline, which opened adouble LEED Platinum certified facility in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard Corporate Center last year. Its four-story central atrium and monumental stairway impressed many when it debuted, and GlaxoSmithKline had a similar motto behind the building’s overall design.
“Our new work space is designed to inspire and connect people,” Deirdre Connelly, President of North America Pharmaceuticals, GSK, told the BDC Network.
Another company that wanted to make a splash with architecture was Biogen Idec, which moved its headquarters to Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. The design was not only designed to benefit staff, but help the company grow a presence in the expanding biopharmaceutical hub of Cambridge. Biogen Idec worked to make sure that its building optimized pedestrian flow and interaction.
As the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries continue to boom, state-of-the-art headquarters may eventually become the norm for these companies.
