This building houses eight spectrometers (high-frequency magnets) for Neutron Magnetic Resonance experiments into the structure of proteins, used for medical research, together with their associated control panels and support equipment. The magnets are very sensitive to interference and experiments with them are easily disturbed; they also create radiation that is harmful to humans, to electronic equipment including computers, and to electronic data such as that held on credit cards. They must therefore be kept isolated. The magnets have different frequencies, and their individual requirements determine the volumes and materials and the routeing of services and circulation around them. Around the highly specific test rooms are more adaptable public and office spaces. The continuous concrete surfaces that wrap around each other, forming floors, walls and roofs, express the enclosure of the invisible magnetic fields. They also form the structure of the building, and services are routed through them, leaving column-free spaces. The interlocking concrete forms themselves resemble giant magnets or test apparatus, and their raw surface is offset by the precise machined appearance of the aquamarine-tinted glazing sandwiched between them.
