-By AnnMarie Marano, Photography by Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing

When VOA Associates was commissioned to design an international customer solutions center showroom for Dade Behring—a world leader in developing instruments for the chemical testing of bodily fluids—the Chicago-based architecture firm took cues from the very instrument it set out to showcase. "The flow of blood was our inspiration," says Young Kuyung In, IIDA, vice president and senior designer at VOA.

Dade Behring originally came to VOA for assistance with its real estate strategy after being acquired by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, and the company wanted to know how to better organize itself on a national level. Set to unveil a new secret weapon—its Dimension Vista® instrument—Dade Behring wanted to display this product introduction in a "different way," says Nick Luzietti, FIIDA, design principal with VOA. His firm's challenge was to build a showroom in Newark, Del., that would celebrate this piece.

The resulting design reflects the human circulatory system. According to In, a "glowing art room" acts as a red blood cell around which the rest of the floor plan revolves. This nucleus features a curved white wall with acrylic boxes of varying depths that house multi-colored fluorescent light bulbs. "Magic is created in the assembly," says Luzietti. "Light is a way to delineate space and highlight voids. For us, lighting never can be shown up."

"We wanted to make sure that the design of the new center would achieve our internal needs as well as our customer expectations," says Servando Gonzalez, marketing manager and customer solutions center manager at Siemens. In order to do that, Gonzalez led a team of six people who used the typical internal business model for new product development, conducting customer interviews on an international level to see what they would expect from a center of this nature.

Comfort, accommodation, and a modern yet friendly design that properly displayed the instrument portfolio was what they demanded. The customer survey information was then passed on to VOA, which developed three different proposals. Once a plan was chosen, customers were surveyed again to see if the design was what they wanted to see in the center. The answer was a resounding 'yes.'

VOA's goal was to use illumination to portray the idea of science and to incorporate lighting into the architecture, as opposed to just placing light fixtures within the space. "We wanted to celebrate lighting as an art form," says Luzietti. "We talk about how light creates a sense of mood and drama, how it can be changed throughout the day, and how the space itself is empowered by light so you understand the hierarchy in the space. You want the blood testing instrument in the center to really say 'this is what's important' by surrounding it with light fixtures that disappear and set the stage."

When it came to devising an overall circulation scheme, VOA employed two concepts: the idea of curves, which was an obvious embodiment of the inspiration of blood flow, and the belief in paving the way for the future. "If these instruments are the future, then the showroom should reflect that," Luzietti says.

Approximately eight different stations constitute the solutions center, where a variety of instruments are showcased in order of importance. The outer ring of displays highlights instruments that have proven to be Dade Behring's workhorses over the years. Audio/visual space, a movie room, brainstorming setup, café area, and traditional conference rooms are also featured. "It's more of a holistic experience, in that we wanted to create a few different types of environments," Luzietti says. "Everything is about being able to service people over the course of the entire day."

The challenge, however, was for VOA to not create a space that's too trendy or opinionated. The powerful shapes and color scheme of white and values of charcoal and light green needed to make enough noise so that visitors would be responsive, but not intimidated. According to Luzietti, this palette allowed his team to push the expression more to the edge, yet tame it and give it a sense of timelessness. This theory led to a branding initiative that pushes the imagination and piques curiosity. "The best types of advertising are the subtle," he says. "With Dade Behring, the concept was to exaggerate images by hybriding them into a form of architecture, and letting that form express itself in a built environment. For example, with the glowing 'D' and 'B' directly off of the lobby, we took the font and turned it into an art form." In adds, "We just created a more modern version of what Dade Behring is, with a lot of glowing elements and everything being connected to the center area."

"Everyone was in love with how the showroom was branded in an artistic way," Luzietti says. However, some changes might be on the horizon for the space now that Dade Bearing has been acquired by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Siemens is focused on allowing the company to maintain its identity while still folding in the Siemens name, so the wall featuring the Dade Behring "DB" is going to have to change, as well as some other elements.

Besides altering the branding, VOA also is considering a way to tweak the lighting to make the space seem less static. Through the use of a lighting color wheel, the showroom can change to respond to the time of day, Luzietti says, with the morning hours being bathed in a bright yellow, perhaps, and the evening changing to a deep blue.

Whether a bright blue, purple, or red, one thing is certain—VOA will make sure that the space continues to focus on providing the best environment for interaction and function. Approvals related to any design changes due to the Siemens' acquisition are expected within the next few months.