For the world-class Richard Doll epidemiology centre we provided civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering services, planning and design, and flood risk consultancy. Part of the Division of Medicine at the University, the RIBA Award winning project houses the Clinical Trial Service Unit, Cancer Epidemiology Unit and National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit.
The 9,000m2 building includes a number of sustainable features in four discrete blocks interlinked by walkways across two glazed atria. The facilities include research laboratories, support spaces with basement plant rooms, cellular and open plan offices, seminar rooms and libraries. Night time cooling via exposed concrete soffits, flexible IT and an intelligent ventilation control system are included in the design in order to enable the high quality interactive workspaces required by the client.
To help the building achieve its BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating, we undertook extensive 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic modelling during the early design stages, together with façade-engineering studies to select fenestration ratios and solar control devices. In this way we were able to prove atria fresh air distribution to offices and temperature performance in summer, leading to design adaptations to improve the developing design.
The project had multiple funding strands, with a shortfall meaning that the shell and various fit-outs were designed and procured on a staged basis. We accommodated this unusual approach with designs that were flexible enough to be extended and re-commissioned with the minimum of fuss when further development was required.
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