Throughout the past century,
our advancements in science have been enabled by buildings and infrastructure.
From vast satellite dishes the size of valleys to polar bases at the very ends of the Earth
and cutting-edge facilities that help take us beyond our own planet the construction sector’s
collaborations with the world of science have dramatically advanced our species.
Opening new frontiers, answering critical questions, vaccinating billions and unlocking
the secrets of our universe these are the world’s most incredible science megaprojects.
Housing the world’s largest laser, California’s National Ignition Facility
is used to heat and compress hydrogen fuel, inducing nuclear fusion reactions.
Covering an area the size of three football fields,
engineers and contractors built the facility by excavating 160,000 cubic metres of Earth
and pouring more than 55,000 cubic metres of concrete - before using one of the world’s
largest cranes to install the ten-metre-diameter target chamber where reactions take place.
Capable of creating some of the most extreme temperatures and pressures ever seen on Earth,
the facility has carried out more than 2,700 experiments over its decade of operation,
increasing our understanding of nuclear reactions.
The programme has also made progress toward fusion ignition,
replicating the processes that occur inside the Sun.
Research in that area will advance significantly when the USD $20BN International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France completes and comes online in 2025.
The mega construction project is currently one of the world’s biggest undertakings
and is being jointly developed by 35 nations.
Sitting more than three kilometres above sea level in Chile’s Atacama desert, the USD $1.1BN
Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is set to become the largest optical telescope ever constructed.
Ushering in a new age of astronomy, the machine will create images
16 times sharper than those currently produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Operated by the European Southern Observatory - which already runs one of the world’s
largest astronomical facilities at the nearby Very
Large Telescope (VLT) - the Extremely Large Telescope will study exoplanets,
increasing our understanding of how entire planetary systems are formed.
The facility will be larger than Rome’s Colosseum and far eclipse any
existing land-based device - it’s primary mirror, formed from 798 smaller mirrors,
will stretch to an incredible 39 metres in diameter.
Construction first started in 2017 and is set to take eight
years to complete - the first light is currently planned for 2025.
Constructed using tunnels originally built in the 1980s,
the Large Hadron Collider on the Franco-Swiss border sits up to 175-metres below ground.
The subterranean facility now allows scientists to fire subatomic particles around a 27-kilometre
long ring of superconducting magnets, colliding them at almost the speed of
light and recreating conditions which existed shortly after the Big Bang.
Aiming to unlock the origins of the universe, the experiments carried out here allow scientists to
study and measure new particles, like the Higgs Boson discovered in 2012,
and further our understanding of theoretical physics.
Easily one of the most complex construction projects ever undertaken by mankind,
the chamber housing just one of the detectors - where the collisions themselves
take place - required the excavation of more than 250,000 cubic metres of earth.
Despite the controversy surrounding the project, it functioned successfully from 2008 until 2018,
when operations were ceased to carry out upgrades.
Under construction since 2013, the European Spallation Source will be
the world's most advanced research facility for neutron science when it competes in 2025.
Set to give scientists an insight into atomic structures, the facility could yield
discoveries that benefit energy, technology, medicine, and environmental innovation.
Constructed by a consortium of 13 countries and at a cost of
USD $2.1BN, the complex will be one of the largest on the European continent.
Despite its scale, the facility will have a limited visual presence from the outside
with substantial landscaping planned to integrate the facility into the surrounding environment.
Though understated from the outside, this building, in fact,
plays a major role in disease prevention across 150 countries.
When it first opened in 2019, the 185,000 square metre Serum Institute of India became the world’s
largest vaccine manufacturing facility, capable of producing half a billion doses each year.
Now producing 22 different vaccines,
the Institute’s latest expansion takes its production capacity up to 1.5 billion doses.
With the Institute seeking approved compliance with US and European vaccine regulations,
the facility will likely play a key role in the manufacture
and deployment of a vaccine for COVID-19 should one emerge from clinical trials.
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