Who said that laboratories, research centers and other science institutions have to be boring places? Believe me, architects are doing their bests when it comes to designing the headquarters of such facilities. The following 22 images prove that I am right.


Technical Area 3 of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is one of the largest multidisciplinary science and technology institutions in the world.


Photo: LANL

The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois

Photo: John Hill, Tigerhill Studio/Argonne National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Multiprogram Research Facility (right), and the Visitor Center (left), in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.


Photo: ORNL

The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), Sandia Labs, Albuquerque, New Mexico


Photo: Randy Montoya/Sandia Labs

Technology & Engineering Development Facility, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, located in Newport News, Virginia


Photo: Jefferson Lab

The New Interdisciplinary Science Building for Energy Research at Brookhaven Lab, in Upton, New York


Photo: BNL

The Thomas J. Watson Research Center, the headquarters for IBM Research, in Yorktown Heights, New York


Photo: Simon Greig

They conduct basic research in the fields of networks and distributed systems, scientific computing, and software engineering in the Simula Research Laboratory, Fornebu, Norway


Photo: Peter

The European Southern Observatory's headquarters in Garching, Germany


Photo: E. Graf/ESO

i.lab, the new research and development center for Italcementi in Bergamo, Italy


Photo: Italcementi

Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, at University of Glasgow


Photo: The Gist

Wilson Hall, the central laboratory building of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois


Photo: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab

The Mechatronics Building in the Science Park of the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria


Photo: JKU

The Science Learning Center at the University of Texas, Dallas. The tile exterior represents two scientific patterns: atomic emission spectra of gases, and human DNA.


Photo: Datum Gojer Engineers

Natural Science Engineering and Research Laboratory (NSERL) at the University of Texas, Dallas. The overlapping colorful anodized stainless steel shingles cover 15 percent of the building's surface.


Photo: Datum Gojer Engineers

The Health Sciences Education Building at University of Arizona in Phoenix was inspired by the canyon formations found throughout the state.


Photo: University of Arizona

The Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England


Photo: MRC-LMB

The Atlas Building of Wageningen University and Research Center, is an environmental research complex in Wageningen, the Netherlands


Photo: Rico

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Stata Center is a home for computer, information, and intelligence science, in Cambridge, MA


Photo: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP

The Bharati Antarctic research station, India's third Antarctic research facility


Photo: COMNAP

ALBA is a synchrotron radiation laboratory in Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain


Photo: Alba-Cells

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), Shanghai, People's Republic of China


Photo: SSRF

Top photo: ENERGY.GOV