The project developed from a winning entry of a competition which required a two-stage proposal, the first being for the immediate construction of new departments of Pharmacology and Biotechnology, the second being for a future department of Biochemistry. The site is in the centre of Cambridge on the Old Addenbrooks Hospital site. The solution consists of liner blocks arranged to create a large three-side courtyard off which all the departments would eventually be entered.

The laboratories occupy the major part of the building, on four stories. All laboratory floors are organised according to a standard section, the offices occupying the street frontage, with ducted and piped services running in a double glazed wall on the opposite face. The space between these two zones provides the maximum possible area for flexible laboratory layout and an energy saving environmental control system to the building.

Externally, the fenestration of the office spaces is designed to the scale and character of the neighbouring buildings, and finishes in similar materials, while the fully glazed and more technologically explicit surfaces face onto the private area of the site.

Credit

• Competition Winning Entry 1986

(design : Colquhoun + Miller)