BIOVAF will be constructed in the campus’s distinctive woodland landscape, and will bring together the Veterinary, Aqua and Food research institutes under one roof. The complex is intended to contribute to making the area a growth centre for research, education and industry.

The fundamental idea in the competition proposal from C.F. Møller Architects is to create a building which is pervaded by nature. Outwardly, the complex marks itself out as something special – an icon adapted to its surroundings. Inwardly, the extension is bonded together by a common "synergy zone" which functions as the social and interdisciplinary umbilical cord for all of BIOVAF.

The synergy zone provides an open space with room for lectures, events, presentations, exhibitions, debates, parties and entertainment, and comprises the distribution area for all traffic to, from, across and between the research institutes on the various storeys.

BIOVAF’s common functions, such as a book café, show lab, exhibitions, canteen and auditoriums, are among the attractions of the synergy zone, and help to make it a vibrant and stimulating place for networking and interdisciplinarity among BIOVAF’s staff members and guests.

The synergy zone links the research departments in a continuous and living sequence along the northern and southern sides of the complex, with direct contact to intermediate outdoor courtyards through transparent facades and open-plan links between the storeys, via interior atriums. This also ensures good daylight.

Together, the campus and the buildings form an integrated architectural image that is adapted to the scale of the site and to the qualities of the fine campus, which was designed in the sixties by the architects Eva and Niels Koppel and the landscape architects Edith and Ole Nørgaard.