Due to the increase in the number of students, staff, PhD candidates and new partnerships, the existing education building at Amsterdam Science Park building 904 is no longer large enough to house the entire Faculty of Science. 

Partnership

LAB42 is the result of a partnership between the UvA, the municipality of Amsterdam and the business sector. The aim is to stimulate meetings, knowledge sharing and cross-pollination between scientists, students, business and society – with appealing facilities and by means of co-creation – in order to provide answers to tomorrow's issues.  

SMEs and start-ups 

SMEs and start-ups are able to rent spaces in LAB42 in order to establish themselves. The meeting rooms for researchers and companies are all together on the same floor, they share a number of facilities and there are lounge areas where people can meet. A selection committee decides which businesses are welcome. The main criterion is that their core business should be a good fit for the topics that the students and researchers are involved in, such as data sciences, AI and infrastructure. 

Community

The UvA also wants to build a community at LAB42 by encouraging interaction between students, researchers and businesses. It is vital to remain in the vanguard of technological innovation, both in the Netherlands and internationally. We therefore make every effort to design and execute innovative projects within the community.

LAB42 is an accessible and transparent building where staff, students and the business community can all feel at home – a lively and inspirational environment that brings together research, teaching and value creation in the information sciences.

No ordinary science building

Given its innovative character, scientific relevance and pioneering research, LAB42 provides a home for rising talent and merits a unique design. The word LAB makes reference to the architect’s vision: ‘With its mix of workplaces, storage rooms, a library, laboratories, clubs and offices, this is much more than just a “science block”, as it seems like anything is possible here.’ LAB also literally reflects the building’s function as a breeding ground and laboratory in the field of informatics. The number 42 is very well known among information scientists, given that it is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and everything (from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Tech and nature

The overarching interior theme in the design is tech & nature. Tech represents our degree programmes and institutions, and we opted for nature because greenery is a universal need and contributes to a healthy and pleasant work environment.

The building has been designed to promote interaction and collaboration. Students, researchers and businesses involved in informatics and AI are able to gather under one roof. Part of the building is reserved to lease space.

Catering facilities are available in the atrium, teaching and lecture rooms are located on the first and second floors, while meeting rooms, offices for SMEs and lounge areas for people to meet in are created on the third floor. The top floors of the building are reserved for the offices of the Informatics Institute and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation of the Faculty of Science. The fourth and fifth floors house the AI labs of the ICAI, which is dedicated to developing AI technologies in collaborative research labs set up in partnership with the business sector, government and knowledge institutions.

Inspiring

During the design process, intensive collaboration with the users resulted in a building in which everyone will feel at home. The unusual façade, lively plinth with RoboLab, foyer area, atrium and lounge will make people curious and stimulate meeting and collaboration. The atrium is completely open and its transparency reveals what is happening in the building. The building has double layering from the bottom up and the inside out, from meeting and ‘dynamism’ to quiet and high-concentration zones.

Several sustainability measures have been implemented for LAB42. For example, approximately 1,800 m² of solar panels have been incorporated into the roof and facades. LAB42's supporting structure is circular and consists of a 100% reusable steel frame that functions like a shelving unit.

Read more about sustainability measures at LAB42