The Form and the Formed Part 2 Project 2006 David Eland University of Edinburgh Edinburgh | UK The project is for a pharmaceutical research facility in Valletta, Malta. Echoing the chemical synthesis conducted within, it is a building that creates itself. Containing both the form and the formed- elements of architecture are synthesised, multiplied and re-used. Thin steel formwork for large concrete volumes is re-used as floors and walls.Within the cast it is homogenous and enveloping, a space for focus. Between the cast and its formwork exists the unexpected- Its surfaces are intimately related, provoking inquiry and understanding. Behind the formwork lies a rough forest of supports, the residue of construction ready to be intuitively inhabited. These extraordinary proposals are born out of an intensive period of making. Anchored to the walls of Valletta’s Grand Harbour, the proposal reveals a section of Laputan buoyancy. The monolithic concrete beam is actually a husk around seams of laboratory caves - their controlled environments reflecting the pneumatic nature of the interior formwork. Within here is a world of material research that seemingly floats over the rough timber forest of the offices and studies- the worlds of paper and theories. In doing so, it curiously reflects the rich and consistently inventive manner in which this architecture has been conceived.