The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 69
What a Mathematics Institute Looks Like
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The great spiral staircase at the centre of the Fields Institute,
222 College St., Toronto.
Whereas the open central core of the Institute encourages
collaborative work as researchers gather around blackboards to
discuss and work out problems, the periphery of the building
provides offices and group space for more independent work.
Using a spatial strategy of corridor-balconies the architects
have provided spacious informal areas to accommodate the
routes of peripatetic mathematicians as well as areas for
casual interaction or intense brainstorming sessions. All these