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A large swath of agricultural land in southern Sweden is being developed into a 'Science City' that will feature a housing development and a high-performance synchrotron radiation facility. The MAX IV Laboratory northeast of Lund is being constructed on 19 hectares of property and will be operated by the Swedish Research Council and Lund University.
The new facility is composed of two electron storage rings, the largest of which has a circumference of 528 metres. The building is surrounded by a unique landscaping program by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta. The landscape design they have envisioned takes a number of topographic and environmental factors into consideration. In preliminary site testing, it was discovered that the surrounding highway causes ground vibrations that could impede laboratory experiments. As a synchrotron's reliability depends on tolerance for ground vibrations, multiple manmade slopes were introduced to the landscape.
No excavated land masses were transported off site, facilitating their potential reuse in the future should the land be returned to its original agricultural state. As the City of Lund restricts the quantity of water allowed into the site, both dry and wet ponds were designed for stormwater management. A selection of plant species from a nearby natural reserve was harvested and spread onto the newly created hilly landscape. This vegetated area around the facility will act as a public park, setting a new standard for lab integration with the public and the environment, rather than the traditional image of a secluded private research facility.
Construction photos show a wavy pattern of bumpy terrain interrupted by the annular structure. The state-of-the-art complex is expected to be inaugurated on the date of the summer solstice in 2016, with the smaller storage ring opening up sometime later in the year.
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