Bangalore: The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) is going in for a major expansion, with an added laboratory complex of 1,00,000 sq ft. The centre, located on the campus of Gandhi Krishi Vidya Kendra in Bangalore, works at the cutting-edge of modern biology, largely in fundamental areas of research.

In anticipation of a two-fold increase in student strength and faculty in the next 10 years, the centre will soon have a 450 capacity auditorium, an indoor sports complex and a library, says architect and head, projects, U.B. Poornima.

As part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the centre will get a bulk of the estimated cost of Rs. 45 crore from the Department of Atomic Energy for the project.

"The new buildings are only a component of the many changes that are going to take place", says K. Vijay Raghavan, NCBS director.

"What we are looking forward to is the qualitative growth that will be catalysed by this new physical expansion," he says.

A team of architects, an engineer and two of NCBS scientists, assessed ideas invited from architects.

Satyajit Mayor, Associate Professor at NCBS, says he would like to see a redesign of the somewhat "isolating spaces" of the existing laboratories.

The board of assessors, of which Dr. Mayor is part, found Delhi-based architect Stephane Paumier and his team at ABRD Architects as most suited to their vision of an interactive laboratory space.

Mr. Paumier's futuristic model with "integrated gardens" and "glazed laboratory facades" to view the green outdoors, has an ecological component.

Grey water will be re-used for gardenening, and solar energy harnessed.

Dr. Raghavan, who believes that "a stand-alone biology institute with no connection with physics, chemistry and computation, will die", is happy with the new fillip given to an interactive environment.

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