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Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an incubator for thinkers and researchers from diverse disciplines promoting understanding of human beliefs, behaviors, interactions, and institutions. Considered one of the leading centers of human-centered knowledge, it was created to facilitate collaboration between academia, politics, industry, civil society, and government, with the aim of collectively designing a better future.
Former director Margaret Levi spearheaded the move to upgrade the CASBS headquarters with a view to hosting researchers and thinkers in environments whose spatial characteristics and architecture reflect the fundaments of our interaction with the natural environment. The designers at Olson Kundig, who had come to Levi’s notice on account of a previous project, were invited along with others to submit a preliminary campus revamping proposal aimed at enhancing collaboration and group work.
The architects’ initial brief was to research and draft small restructuring projects and rethink the use of space. They concluded that the way to foster a culture of collaboration between grant holders and CASBS researchers would be a new building surrounded by open spaces.
It was decided to site the new volume to the south-west of the existing main building – a historic series of low-rise pavilions designed by William Wurster in the 1950s south of Stanford University. Located at the edge of the park landscaped by Thomas Church, close to the research center’s parking lot, the new program also includes a small open space that connects the area to the rest of the campus but also allows indoor activities to spill out into the open.
In respectful keeping with Stanford University’s extraordinary architectural tradition, the same language was chosen for the new building. This is especially true as regards the close rapport between inside and outside...
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