Henning Larsen Architects Releases New European Spallation Source (ESS) Video

Earlier this year in February, we reported that the architectual team Henning Larsen Architects + COBE + SLA had won the design competition for the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden—soon to become the world's largest and most advanced facility for neutron-based research. The architects have now released a video which provides insight on the ESS project, building, and surroundings.

The competition team also includes the engineering partners Buro Happold, NNE Pharmaplan, and Transsolar.

European Spallation Source (ESS), in Lund, Sweden from Henning Larsen Architects on Vimeo.

Project Description from Henning Larsen Architects:

The European Spallation Source (ESS) will become the world's largest and most advanced research facility for neutron-based research. ESS is located in the university city of Lund in southern Sweden.

ESS will be a research campus with a more than 600 metres long proton accelerator and a 180 metres long hall in which the protons hit a target and send neutrons off to a number of halls with measuring instruments. In the instruments, the neutrons are used to analyse the materials that the researchers are studying. ESS will also contain a number of facilities for researchers: laboratories, offices and a lecture hall.

At ESS, researchers will work in a setting that supports meetings across disciplines and research fields. In the atriums found in the buildings, visiting researchers will be able to meet each other informally, inspire each other, exchange ideas and share their knowledge. When the weather permits, the outdoor areas will also offer a plethora of places to stay in.

The architecture is inspired by one of the most important elements in the spallation process, the tungsten disc. The disc and the tungsten metal are used as visual metaphors that mark the centre of the research facility: a large, circular roof above the hall that holds the tungsten disc. This will become a point of orientation for the campus area at ESS, and it will make ESS stand out in relation to the research facility Max IV and Lund Science Village.

To see more images of the project, click here.