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 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

    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

    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

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

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

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

    Photo: JKU

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

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

    Photo: Rico

    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

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

    Photo: SSRF