Collaborative Cure

If every building had a theme song, who would select it and what would it say about the experience of the place? Perhaps Montreal-based Saucier + Perrotte Architectes and local collaborators Hughes Condon Marler Architects would not have chosen Good Times by American electronica band Owl City and BC native Carly Rae Jepsen for the new Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). At any rate, the 2012 summer anthem became the soundtrack for the school’s official lip dub, the latest outlet for school spirit amongst university students and faculty. The four-and-a-half-minute YouTube video feels like karaoke’s answer to the music video, combining lip synching and audio dubbing while following a new student around on her first day of class in a single unedited shot. From the main entrance off the university’s spine road, Wesbrook Mall, she is greeted by a chorus of students and faculty that winds through the facility’s main foyers, staircases, atria, classrooms and labs, culminating in a balloon-wielding, lab coat-clad crowd jumping frenetically across the new plaza in front of the school’s iconic west façade. The lighthearted song lyrics and gangnam-style dancing remind viewers that while large institutional facilities like this one support millions of dollars in leading-edge research and experimentation, such buildings are at their best when they bring people together in collaboration and enthusiasm. ..