To address the increased demand for laboratory space, we were asked to create flexible new facilities and provide a new microbiology laboratory and anatomy teaching facility. The building provides a variety of new laboratory spaces, including a large teaching laboratory on the ground floor with dividing internal walls to make the space flexible for different group sizes. The services, storage and fume cupboards have all been contained along one wall to facilitate the subdivision of lab space and provide future flexibility of the laboratory space.
The new Elizabeth Creak Building provides modern facilities to complement the University’s existing laboratories. The new facilities link to the existing labs with a circulation zone that provide a disabled and service lift for the facility, along with new reception and staff office and research areas.
Collaborating with the University, we researched a number of new University Science buildings in the UK to understand how the sector was reflecting the growing importance of STEM subjects in new facilities to attract students and researchers. At first floor level the window arrangement reflects the internal desk layout and the mass of this floor is broken up by using elements of zinc and areas of living green wall – a celebration of the University’s agricultural research agenda. Plants for the green wall were chosen by the University’s horticulturalist to reflect local species as far as possible.
