At the time of its completion, the HCI on the ETH Campus Hönggerberg in Zurich stood as the most expensive non-military building in Switzerland. Constructed in two phases in 2001 and 2004, the HCI was primarily intended for the academic Department of Chemistry, with the Departments of Materials and Biology later joining the user list. The construction budget, inclusive of lab fitouts, exceeded 1 billion Swiss Francs.

 Spanning close to 150,000 square meters in total area, with 65,000 square meters of usable space accommodating approximately 500 labs, the HCI serves as a significant hub for educational and research activities. This extensive infrastructure enables the ETH Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences to efficiently educate a substantial number of new researchers. The influx of fresh engineering talent has significantly contributed to the explosive growth of the Swiss pharma industry. The emergence of the giant Novartis in 1996, resulting from the largest merger in the pharmaceutical industry, saw an increasing number of ETH-educated biochemical engineers entering the global pharmaceutical market.

The HCI's design comprises five identical research lab and office wings connected by a spine building housing circulation spaces and teaching labs. Specialized research facilities, a vivarium, and technical rooms are situated underground. The Head building features auditoriums on the upper levels, with student cafeterias located on the lower two levels. The Spine accommodates teaching labs and seminar rooms facing the courtyards.

Each of the five lab Fingers is flanked by two cores containing stairs, lifts, and toilets. The lab and office tracts are separated by a corridor lined with a row of service shafts on the lab side. Vertical distribution of building and lab services occurs within these shafts, directly supplying each lab block and largely eliminating the need for horizontal services distribution outside the labs.

Write-up zones are situated along the facade, while support labs are located towards the corridor.

At the southwest end of each finger are seminar spaces, potentially convertible into labs. The Fingers connect to the Spine via the main circulation north core, with an additional egress stair positioned in the middle of each Finger.

The stacking is identical across all five Fingers, comprising five above-grade levels with research labs and offices within the Fingers, and four levels of teaching labs within the Spine. A ground floor with more headroom and slabs capable of supporting up to 1000 kg per square meter allows for accommodating larger equipment.

Typical lab/office floors boast a floor-to-floor height of 3.95 meters, with 35cm thick concrete slabs capable of carrying 500 kg per square meter. They offer a clear height of 2.70 meters and an 80cm ceiling installation height in the labs. Ceilings in the labs are left open for easy access to installations, with an aluminum profile mounting grid suspended at ceiling level for media columns and overhead equipment.

Technical rooms, vivarium facilities, and special research labs are situated across 2-3 underground levels. The ventilation plenum is located at Level 6 of each Finger.

Stair and lift cores are positioned at either end of the finger, supplemented by an auxiliary egress stair in the middle of the office tract. The structure is constructed with cast-in-place concrete, designed to withstand loads of up to 500kg/m² on main floors and 1000kg/m² on the Ground Floor.

Each structural bay, spanning 7.2 meters, accommodates a double-loaded 3.6m lab module.

The building is exceptionally robust, featuring high-value facade and interior finishes.

Shafts servicing the labs are distributed along the corridor, with each shaft serving one main and support lab unit.

The lab layout is standardized around a 3.2m wide lab module, with the 7.2m wide structural bay accommodating its double size, inclusive of partition thickness. Labs can be reconfigured along one axis, in-length but not in-depth. Both research labs in the Fingers and teaching labs along the Spine adhere to the 7.2m structural, 3.6m lab bay module.

The cellular modular lab layout facilitates the clear allocation of one or more modules to a research cluster. It allows for the creation of individual room temperature and moisture conditions for each module or cluster of modules separately. Additionally, lab and support labs can be combined, and additional "rooms-in-rooms" can be constructed within the main lab space to accommodate especially sensitive equipment.

Large auditoriums and food services are centralized in the Head of the building. However, from today's standpoint, the building lacks informal communication spaces situated on the lab floors.

The building consists of a series of five identical lab tracts, essentially independent, connected by a circulation spine. The decision to have five fingers, rather than four or six, was based on space demand considerations. This configuration allows for a reasonable maximum walkable length in both the spine and the lab fingers.

Within the Fingers, a corridor runs with labs on one side and offices on the other, bookended by the cores. This efficient design approach embraces the notion that efficiency is beautiful.

The scale of HCI transcends mere size; it embodies a distinct quality. In terms of facilities operation, it operates as a perfect machine, characterized by standardized lab and office units and repeating standard parts. This scaling was achieved by replicating distinct, substantially independent Fingers, as opposed to creating one large, amorphous building. However, a drawback of this approach is the absence of informal collaboration spaces on the lab floors.

The office block constitutes approximately one-third of the total floor plate in the Fingers, yet it fails to adequately meet the needs. The increasing demand for computational research spaces necessitates even more office-type space in research buildings. This heightened demand for office, collaborative, and computational research spaces has primarily emerged in the recent decade and could not have been anticipated in the late 1990s when the HCI concept was developed.

Consequently, the relatively rigid, use-predetermined structure, compounded by its scale, presents a larger aggregate issue akin to placing many eggs in one basket.

Phase 1: Planning 1990-1997, Construction 1997-2001
Phase 2: Planning 1999-2021, Construction 2002-2004

Total area 146'300m2, useable area 65'740 m2

Architect: Campi Pessina