The award winning major expansion to the University of Nottingham’s Biodiscovery Institute has been completed to the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) standard of ‘excellent’.
Home to lifesaving breakthroughs
Spread across five floors, this 65,000 sq ft expansion features high-tech laboratories, offices, and meeting rooms for academic and postgraduate students and staff. In years to come, it will witness vital breakthroughs in the research, treatment and diagnosis of serious diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular, liver, bone and respiratory conditions.
Among the many services provided, we hope our supply and installation of several specialist laboratory systems will aid great scientific advancement in the future. These include over a hundred specialist microbiological safety cabinets and fume cupboards, a deionised water supply system, a super-insulated liquid nitrogen delivery system, several specialist medical gas networks alongside the necessary safety systems.
Promising sustainable longevity
We are also very proud to have enabled the expansion’s lifelong sustainability by installing renewable energy technologies into the build. These included energy-efficient LED lighting, and Photovoltaic (PV) and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technologies – key contributions to the centre’s ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating.
Our BIM-trained staff led the collaborative use of complex 3D modelling between ourselves, the architect and the structural engineer. Whilst allowing the easy coordination of M&E services in tight spaces, it also enabled both the design team and the client to visualise these services in-situ.
The above (and beyond) complements the work of contractor G F Tomlinson’s 8th project at the University of Nottingham, alongside other collaborators Buro Four, Gleeds, Benoy, and WSP Safety Ltd.
Opening doors of opportunity
This expansion marks the 3rd phase of development of the Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, with £40m already invested in the laboratories alone. Now home to 300+ scientists, this expansion marks a massive boon for the medical field. James Hale, Senior Capital Projects Manager at the University of Nottingham, notes: “The new world-class facilities will allow us to meet the demand for increased biomolecular research, and strengthens the University’s strong reputation as an international centre in the field.”
LABC Awards 2020 – Highly Commended: Best Public Service or Education Building
RICS Social Impact Awards 2020 – Best Education Project in East Midlands – Shortlisted
East Midlands Business Link – Bricks Awards 2020 – Commercial Development of the Year
“This expansion provides many exciting opportunities and allows the researchers in our Centre to be at the forefront of an interdisciplinary effort to deliver our vision – that through chemical and biological discovery and engineering, we will diagnose, treat and cure disease, and provide security for quality of life.”
Professor Chris Denning, Director of the Centre for Biomolecular Science