The Salk Institute: Architecture Built for Adaptability

Sal Institute let's learn stories behind

this iconic architecture in 1959 San

Diego gifted Jonas Sal the man who

discovered the vaccine for poo a site

along the Pacific coast to build a

biological Research Center so wanted a

campus that was so beautiful that it

would draw the best researchers in the

world he also desired a space that could

adapt to the changing needs of science

architect Lou Khan was hired and his

solution was so simple but so profound

the design is essentially Two Towers

with a Plaza in between there are three

Laboratories in each building but six

floors Khan designed a separate service

floor above each of the Laboratories he

also put vend deal trusses like the ones

you see on bridges for the structure so

that the laboratory floor below could be

column free so at any time the

Laboratories and the services could

adapt however needed and remember when

we learned about using volcanic ash in

the construction of the pantheon well

Khan used it in his concrete here too

and he used teak wood the strongest wood

for outdoor use this really was a

building built for the future