A cultural foundation

Published on 06/04/2022

Few people are as familiar with the history of the Novartis Campus as Marco Serra. The longtime chief architect of Novartis, who joined the company around the turn of the millennium when construction work on the Campus took off, knows most of the buildings on the St. Johann site inside out.

If he was not fleshing out a design himself, such as the elegant Main Gate made of glass and marble, which gives visitors from all over the world a first impression of the Campus, then he was personally involved in the planning and construction of most Campus buildings, including the Pavillon.

Although the Campus is dotted with architectural masterpieces and displays the works of numerous Pritzker Prize laureates – including Frank Gehry, Rafael Moneo, Tadao Andō and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron – the Pavillon stands out, above all, according to Serra, due to its genesis.

The idea for the building, conceived by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, evolved through many discussions over almost a decade, taking a number of surprising turns until the striking circular building finally found its present location in the park just in front of the Campus.

Place of learning

“It all began with the very idea of learning,” Serra explained, as we strolled across the Campus one afternoon in the summer of 2021 to discuss the cultural and architectural development of the site. “In the past, one learned mainly by attending courses at a university. So, you traveled somewhere, to a special place, to acquire knowledge.”

But this rigid concept has changed considerably in recent years. Today, new communication technologies such as the internet provide a way to rethink and challenge the traditional notion of learning. Alongside this trend, Serra explained, Novartis had also faced a greater need to build its own venue for seminars and training courses as well as a separate place dedicated to learning and exchange.

“Initially, we looked for buildings and locations outside Basel. We considered creating a secluded setting, in which associates could work on certain projects in a concentrated and intensive manner,” Serra recounted. “Despite the rapid digitization and the resulting advantages, the concept of closeness remains crucial today when it comes to working together on a project and developing familiarity and trust.”

Cultural change

These conversations coincided during a period of cultural change at Novartis, which gained momentum following the appointment of Joerg Reinhardt as Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2013. In addition to operational and cultural changes, this also included structural and technological advances.

While the company set out to focus its operations on its core pharmaceutical business – Novartis sold its vaccine and animal health businesses, among others, and later also spun off the eye-care unit Alcon – it also adapted its corporate culture.

Values such as cooperation and teamwork came to the fore. The goal was not only to drive innovation, which remained the backbone of Novartis, but also to leverage the potential and expertise of all associates.

At the same time, cooperation was also accelerated by reorganizing business units and establishing a service division with the aim of simplifying processes and offering support services for all Novartis business areas from a single source.

These efforts gained pace with the appointment of Vas Narasimhan as CEO of Novartis in 2018. In addition to promoting data and digital technologies and advancing top-notch research areas such as cell and gene therapy and nuclear medicine, Narasimhan focused his efforts primarily on strengthening the corporate culture. Inspiration, curiosity and individual responsibility – inspired, curious, unbossed – are the vital elements of this ongoing cultural change, which not only aims to flatten hierarchies, but also offers associates the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.

Especially in terms of learning, Novartis embraced new opportunities. In addition to offering some 3500 courses from leading universities such as Yale or Princeton, which are delivered via digital platform Coursera, or the wide range of learning opportunities provided by LinkedIn, Novartis grants its associates around 100 learning hours per year.

Typology of transparency

While digitization gained momentum, the need to find a physical space for learning persisted. The former spa hotel Bad Schauenburg, among others, was considered a possible location to make this long-standing vision a reality. However, the location and typology of the building, which was purchased in 1958 by predecessor company J.R. Geigy, made plans to convert the property into a hotel and conference center rather challenging.

After all, the company’s cultural change was not just about promoting cooperation and team spirit. A key objective that gained significance over time was also to enhance transparency and engage in dialogue with the public.

“The idea of transparency prompted us to start seeing the Campus as the apt place for learning,” Serra said. “This aligned well with the core idea of the Campus, which had always been conceived as a place of learning, communication and innovation. However, it was not easy to find a suitable building for this endeavor. The choice of location alone was discussed for a long time.”

Furthermore, Serra noted, a consensus emerged that a possible new building should also house an exhibition about the pharmaceutical industry to help familiarize the public with the sector, which despite its societal importance was little understood by the general population.

A place of innovation

The idea to focus on learning and exchange was already a priority when the Campus was being developed around the turn of the mil­lennium. Back then, shortly after the founding of Novartis, former chairman Daniel Vasella did not want simply to carry out a makeshift renovation of the aging St. Johann site. Rather, he not only had a completely new environment in mind, in which associates would find different work settings suitable for team and individual work, he also envisaged creating spaces for casual encounters to generate an atmosphere that would foster creativity and innovation.

Although the various Campus buildings were designed individually in accordance with the needs of their respective users, architects aligned their work to the master plan of Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani: The Italian urban planner had drawn up a general outline, which defined the Campus as an urban area with interspersed parks and squares to provide for variety and individuality between the buildings.

In this way, new structures emerged, such as Forum 3 by Diener & Diener with its expressive glass façade, or the almost transparent-looking building by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryūe Nishizawa at the Campus entrance, or the Visitor Center designed by Peter Maerkli, which is striking for its classic modern elegance. Between the buildings, there are green areas, parks and small secluded woods, where associates and guests find space for recreation. Here, everyone can break out of the daily grind and recharge their batteries to develop new ideas.

A random circle

However, location scouting on the Campus was not easy, according to Serra. Together with Joerg Reinhardt and Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani, various locations were considered but repeatedly rejected, including the idea of accommodating the learning center in a former laboratory building.

“An important question besides that of learning concerned the nature of the dialogue with the public,” Serra said. “Not only did we envisage a place of learning, but we also wanted to create a space where the public could gain better insight into the pharmaceutical industry.”

For Reinhardt, this exchange had become increasingly important. “The pharmaceutical industry is highly complex. But there are only a few places where the public can obtain information and find out more about how a modern drug is developed.”

What initially started off as a venue for learning and exchange evolved into the concept of a venue where people could meet, where a genuine exchange of ideas could take place. While some buildings and sites on the Campus were being evaluated, Lampugnani and Serra finally proposed placing the building in the park located in front of the Campus – by just drawing a circle in the middle of the landscape.

“That was really just scribbled down,” Serra said. “But maybe after years of discussing the idea, we just felt that a round building might fit. The fact that someone then came up with that idea independently of us was, of course, just a lucky coincidence.”

When the decision was finally made to construct a new building outside the Campus, a competition was launched, attracting renowned architects, including Smiljan Radic, Tom Emerson and Shigeru Ban, whose concepts all impressed with their innovative designs.

In the end, the race was won by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, whose proposal not only bore the closest resemblance to the original circle, but also best embodied the idea of learning and exchange.

Learning with pleasure

For De Lucchi, one of the world’s most renowned architects and designers, the key idea was to invert the concept of learning in a new and surprising way.

“The reason we opted for a circular building,” De Lucchi said, “is because we wanted to create an interior that invites visitors to walk around. Much like in Aristotle’s Lyceum, we liked the idea of learning and walking, being open and alert.”

De Lucchi and his team rejected the idea of a conventional exhibition center, arguing that today’s public buildings and spaces are not about storing information, which is now available on every iPhone or in the cloud. Rather, they wanted to create a space where people could experience quality time and learn through play.

“This is a new concept compared to what was built 10 or 20 years ago,” De Lucchi said. “I remember when I was a kid, learning meant suffering. Today, that notion is outdated in the face of technological advances. We wanted to give this new playfulness a contemporary form.”

Constant dialogue

While the interior of the Pavillon is geared toward playful, interactive learning and education, including a café as well as schooling and meeting areas, the exterior combines playfulness and dialogue in a unique way.

Instead of a glitzy, high-style shell, De Lucchi and his team opted for a media façade, designed in tandem with Swiss company iart, which is composed of a network of organic photovoltaic cells and LED elements.

“The idea was to bring the outer shell into dialogue with the visitor as well,” De Lucchi explained. “We want to collaborate with artists who use this surface to create light installations that engage the audience, similar to what artists did in the past with stained glass windows, which, apart from the purely aesthetic aspect, were primarily intended to tell stories and encourage the audience to interact.”

“Of course, the circular building is striking and a unique landmark in its own right in the context of the Campus,” Serra added. “But what tipped the scales in favor of this building was the way the architect was able to translate the principles of Novartis and reconcile the ideas of learning and meeting within it.”

This aspect is of central importance to Reinhardt too. After all, it is not only important to raise awareness about the pharmaceutical industry, but also to create a meeting place where genuine intellectual exchange is possible. “Despite its great social significance, the pharmaceutical industry is repeatedly struggling for social acceptance. With the Pavillon, we not only want to set an example and open a door for people to get to know what we do. We also want to enter into dialogue and cultivate a genuine culture of debate,” Reinhardt concluded.