Kia Laboratory is both a pathobiology lab and a hangout space

Designed by Davood Boroojeni and his team including guest architect Iman Enayati, the Kia Laboratory is located in Qarah Zia od Din in Iran. A celebrated design, the structure has won numerous awards within its typology of healthcare and wellness facilities. While designing Kia Laboratory Project, Iranian architect Boroojeni approached the building not as a singular independent element but as an extension of the city. In the design, the architects have tried to create a dynamic between the building and the city to form a public space for the citizens.

Although the building’s primary use is one of healthcare as a pathobiology lab, an additional function was added to the healthcare architecture programmatic scheme. This additional objective was to make the building an urban hangout, blurring and almost omitting the imaginary and physical lines that separate the city and the building. The architectural design does this by creating spaces where people can enjoy themselves and linger. The user sees the building as an extension of the urban sphere where there is no border between the laboratory and the natural fabric of the city.

This approach referred to by the Boroojeni as the “building-city” idea, was formed after the architecture firm conducted extensive field studies and interviews with the residents of Qarah Ziya od Din where the laboratory is located. This city on the northwest border of Iran is home to 27,000 residents and has ancient sites dating back to the eighth century BCE. The research showed that the city is remarkably safe, yet the citizens feel little attachment to their city and complain about the lack of public spaces. This project has tried to mend the city's and its citizens' relationship through the built environment.

In order to implement this idea the architects returned to the ancient Iranian architecture and urban design solutions where several examples of vertical connections between the city elements in dense areas are found. In most examples, sets of steps are the connecting vessel between the urban spaces and architecture. In the historic sites of the ancient city of Murche Khvort near Isfahan, several stairs and tunnels connected various levels of urban spaces. Inspired by Murche Khvort the architect has designed the Kia Laboratory in a way that people can reach the first floor via the stairs placed in the passage, without needing to enter the ground floor or go through any doors. The first floor where they can get straight from the urban fabric is an empty space with a view of the street where users of the building can sit and linger.

Qarah Ziya od Din is also famous for its colonies of storks. The birds have a strong presence in the city’s folklore and stories, and citizens have a harmonious coexistence with them. One can see man-made objects for the storks to nest throughout the city. The structure of Kia Laboratory is inspired by the same objects and created based on the geometric layout of the area.

As an urban element, the building has a strong presence. Its clean white exterior surface and geometric rectangular windows are in stark contrast with the exhausted and rusty urban fabric around it yet sit remarkably well despite the contrast. It is as if the building tries to be in gentle harmony with its surroundings. The effort on the architect's part to merge the building with the city fabric has paid off and despite the aesthetical difference, not only the building does not shun away from the neighbouring structures but also invites them in, trying to blur where the city fabric ends and the laboratory begins.

The building consists of a basement used for storage and service spaces, and four floors. Most of the space on the first floor is dedicated to the public area where the interaction with the urban sphere happens and people can access it without the need to enter the laboratory. The various laboratory functions are distributed in several rooms and spaces across the rest of the floors that maintain a connection through stairs and elevators.

The design has made use of several sculpted niches to create pleasant spaces for people to gather and hang about. These spaces are made more welcoming and tranquil both by the artificial colouring and by creating a beautiful play of shadow and light by using architectural elements and plants. The minimal but effective use of plants has also contributed to creating an inviting and relaxing environment.

A building that tries to be invisible where it sits on the cityscape, it has relatively succeeded in obscuring the border between the city and the urban sphere. Despite being worlds apart from the underprivileged fabric surrounding it, Kia Laboratory has squeezed itself into the crevices of the city and it’s already having an impact. Whether with carpets or nice-looking pebbles, the surrounding houses are trying to clean up their rooftops, making them look better in their own way to match the charm of this well-intended alien in their town.

Project Details

Name:Kia Laboratory
Architects: Davood Boroojeni Office
Location: Iran
Area: 1200 m²
Lead Architects: Davood Boroojeni, Saba Ammari, Hamed Kalateh
Invited Architect: Iman Enayati
Executive Team: Behrooz Ershadipoor, Majid Mokhtari
Client: Dr. Golnaz Naseri, Kia Laboratory
Manufacturers: Artman Furniture Studio
Presentation: Hadi Koohi Habibi