Western University opened The Collider at the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) on Monday, June 23, 2014. The Collider serves as an intellectual, social and communal hub where Western’s researchers will collaborate with industry partners and accelerate innovation with special focus on renewable energy and transportation.
The Collider is a unique, multi-shareholder partnership between Western University, the City of London and Fanshawe College. The building will empower researchers to capitalize on the power of these partnerships and serve as a symbol of innovation for Western University and the region.
The Collider forms a collaborative magnet for the various research intensive buildings already in existence at the AMP. The centre is designed to foster collaboration with an atrium linking the academic research programs to commercially leased space that can also host ampitheatre-style functions. The creation of a shared stair and one shared corridor for all users also promotes interaction and creative “collisions.”
“The Collider is a unique building that not only houses collaboration but helps to accelerate it,” said Safdar Abidi, CannonDesign’s Education Practice Leader for Ontario and Eastern Canada. “Our design team leveraged every opportunity to create a building that strengthens the facility’s purpose and mission.”
The building’s interior is conceived holistically with the exterior with a “ribbon” parti wrapping itself into the interior, terminating at the social stair that bridges the two floors. Light, privacy and security were inherent to the planning of the interior, with organized bands of dense private program toward the rear of the building and a light-filled public “display bar” corridor along the front of the building.
“The architecture acts as both an armature for innovation and a fulcrum for the growth of a dynamic campus,” added Andrew King, CannonDesign’s Design Principal for Canada.