F&S helps build an IdeaLab for CITA to tackle big questions about humanity’s future
Big, cosmic conversations are going to take place in IMP 1306—a space in the McLennan Physical Laboratories repurposed and renovated to better facilitate scientific research on the St. George campus.
According to Property Manager Saurabh Mallik, who managed the project, the space will serve as a collaborative work environment for PhD students and researchers, as well as a collaboration space for networking and discussion.
“The project was initiated by Juna Kollmeier, the Director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), who recognized the need for a technologically advanced space where scholars could come together to work on projects and share ideas,” he said. “She wanted to use the existing library which was quite dilapidated and unused and transform it into collaborative space with two separate areas.”
“Arriving at U of T shortly after the COVID-19 lockdowns, I wanted the space to enable hypercreativity and be a fun and beautiful place where scholars wanted to be together,” Kollmeier said.
“To achieve the goal, I wanted to take advantage of the three fundamental assets of the initial space: killer views of the sky and the Earth; high-ceilinged art-deco architecture; and unobstructed volume.”
The newly constructed CITA lab contains two rooms separated by a sound-attenuated partition.
The first area, referred to as “the bridge,” features a wall with high-resolution video capabilities that allow users to present their research. This technology-focused area will allow scholars to “discuss numerical results, advance our codes, and visualize our computations,” Kollmeier said. The second area serves as a space where individuals can relax over a hot beverage and engage in discussions or quiet thinking.
“It has been designed to promote collaboration, innovation, and knowledge-sharing among researchers and students,” Malik said.
Mallik ensured that every single step of this faculty project was meticulously vetted by the client representative and reviewed by experts before it proceeded to construction.
“We worked with a consultant who came up with a schematic design, which was then reviewed by clients and various stakeholders, such as the electrical team,” Malik said.
“Colors and materials were chosen to embrace and celebrate the natural world. Hues of blue, green, brown with gold and marble to remind us of the earth, but also the more exotic processes— like neutron star mergers— that form the heavy elements such as gold and platinum,” Kollmeier shared. “The ‘melt’ lighting fixtures reminded me of supernovae, ionization fronts, star formation regions, black hole mergers, and many other astrophysical phenomena and I hope our scholars find them inspiring as well.”
The Property Management team regularly collaborates with different technical groups across F&S on projects, who provide input at different stages to ensure that all angles are considered, and all aspects are integrated seamlessly.
“The F&S team were great in navigating a challenging post-COVID vendor and construction environment,” Kollmeier said. “We had many challenges through this project, but I had confidence that our U of T team tried to understand our concerns and constraints and be responsive so that we could move forward.”
Currently nearing completion, the focus now is on commissioning, and preparing for occupancy.
Meanwhile, the department is planning to launch the newly renovated area to their academic community.
“This collaborative and technologically advanced space can serve as a model for similar initiatives in engineering, business, and other fields,” Malik said.
Providing a dedicated environment for collaboration and innovation is one of the many ways that the university fosters interdisciplinary research and facilitates breakthroughs in various domains.