Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University
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Plant science research centre for 120 scientists set in the university's listed botanic gardens
All research facilities are on the first-floor while the social spaces are mainly located at ground level. Internal streets at both levels wrap around two sides of a central court, connected by a stepped ramp and a staircase providing a continuous promenade.
To provide openness and transparency, glass walls separate the laboratories from the internal street. Daylight filters through regulating internal streets, the colonnades and rooflights (with undulating GRG soffits).
There is little incident on the north and east facades to relieve the regiment of stone piers. To the south, the first-floor accommodation juts out into the gardens.
All stone flooring is York stone and all masonry is French limestone. Materials in the laboratories are clinical, with benches and walls clad in 10mm cast epoxy resin. Other materials used include European oak, Iroko, parquet oak flooring and powder-coated and anodised aluminium.
Along the perimeter of the first-floor internal street there is a series of spaces designed for informal work, reflection or discussion (study boxes).
Data
- Begun: Feb 2008
- Completed: Dec 2010
- Floor area: 11,000m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £65M
- Procurement: EEC, Option A
- CO2 Emissions: 75kg/m2/year
- Address: Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1JF, United Kingdom
Professional Team
- Architect: Stanton Williams
- Client: University of Cambridge
- Building services engineer: Arup
- Quantity surveyor: Gardiner and Theobald
- Strategic project manager: Stuart A Johnson Consulting
- Main contractor: Kier Group Plc
- Structural engineer: Adams Kara Taylor
- Civil engineer: Adams Kara Taylor