Beyond the Limits of the Original Design

A new Center for Biomedical Research has been completed at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP) of the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. The project by Biselli Katchborian Arquitetos began with an unusual decision: to entirely revisit a preliminary design that the architects determined was inadequate for the demands of contemporary scientific research. Rather than patch the existing plan, the office launched a new feasibility study from scratch.

Why This Building Matters

Biomedical research facilities operate under a fundamentally different logic than conventional buildings. Precise environmental control—temperature, humidity, air pressure—specialized laboratory configurations, bioterium (animal research facility) isolation standards, and strict contamination-prevention zoning must all be integrated from the earliest stages of design. The fact that the original preliminary design failed to meet these requirements highlights how critical user involvement is in planning research infrastructure.

Biselli Katchborian conducted the new feasibility study in direct dialogue with researchers and facility operators. The resulting program encompasses laboratories, study and research areas, support spaces, and a bioterium with specific operational and control requirements. Each zone was calibrated to simultaneously meet research efficiency and safety standards.

A Milestone for Latin American University Research Infrastructure

The University of São Paulo is the largest research-focused university in Latin America, responsible for a significant share of Brazil's total scientific output. FMRP has long been recognized internationally for its life sciences research, yet physical infrastructure has historically lagged behind academic ambition.

Since the 2010s, Brazil and other Latin American nations have invested increasingly in modernizing university research facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, elevating domestic biomedical research capacity to a policy priority and intensifying demand for specialized research architecture. The USP center now stands as a notable case study—not only for its program, but for its design methodology.

Participatory design is well established in hospital and school architecture, but remains rare in highly specialized research facilities. The approach taken here—engaging researchers, technicians, and administrators from the outset to define spatial requirements—has the potential to serve as a reference model for future university research facility projects across the region.