Building Highlight - Research School of Biological Sciences and the Science Precinct
The Research School of Biological Sciences (RSBS) was originally housed in the former Nurses Quarters of the Old Canberra Hospital Buildings (now the Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health). Plans for a more permanent home were designed in 1970 by Hely & Horne (with Eggleston, Macdonald & Secomb) and construction commenced late that year.
The building was officially opened by the Governor General, Sir Paul Hasluck on 10 November 1972. Extensions and additions were designed and constructed throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including glasshouses and soil bins (1972-74) an extension to house the Electron Microscope Unit (1978), insectary (1978), solar glasshouse (1985) and workshop (1989).
In 2017 the building was refurbished to provide state-of-the-art offices, seminar rooms and laboratories for teams from the Research School of Biology, the Fenner School, and Science Administration. The $3 million building has a three-storey glass-roofed central court with laboratory wings on either side. The building also incorporated computer, photographic and electron microscopy facilities; offices; workshops; animal houses; controlled environment area; and ecology services area.
The building is named in honour of botanist Rutherford Ness Robertson, who had a distinguished career at the CSIR (later CSIRO) and as chair of Botany at the University of Adelaide before relocating to Canberra in 1969. Robertson was Master of the ANU’s University House before being appointed Director of the RSBS in 1973, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. Under Robertson and the RSBS’s first Director David Catcheside, the School grew from having 46 staff to 290 staff within its first decade.
A recent addition to the Acton Campus is the $240 million Science Precinct, which comprises the Linnaeus Building, the Science Teaching and Learning Building and the Chemical Sciences Building.
The Linnaeus Building
The Linnaeus Building was completed in 2011 and houses state-of-the art laboratory facilities and offices. It supports molecular and cell biology teaching and research and accommodates most of the staff and students of the Division of Biomedical Science and Biochemistry and Division of Plant Sciences. It also houses a wide range of general and specialist research equipment, a large area dedicated to plant growth facilities, and cell culture laboratories that support work in parasitology, virology, immunology and cancer biology. The building’s name is a tribute to Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy in the 1700s.
The Science Teaching and Learning Building
The Science Teaching and Learning Building includes eight teaching wet laboratories for undergraduate and course work students across the Bioscience and Chemistry disciplines, as well 150-seat and 50-seat flexible learning spaces, several outdoor teaching areas and smaller group rooms. The building also includes analytical and instrument laboratories.
The Chemical Sciences Building
This building is in the heart of the Science Precinct, bringing together researchers and students from multiple disciplines and driving collaboration between different fields of science. The building was constructed in 2009 and was awarded a Public Architecture Award from the ACT Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects.
References
Australian National University n.d., Acton Campus site inventory, <https://services.anu.edu.au/files/inventory/46.-rsb-final_0_0.pdf>
ANU College of Science n.d., Science Precinct, <https://science.anu.edu.au/research/field-sites-facilities/science-precinct>
National Centre of Biography 2001, Robertson, Sir Rutherford Ness (1913-2001), <https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/robertson-sir-rutherford-ness-1392>
