Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre, Phase 1
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The transparent quality of the building shown at dusk
Dave Bower Download Original
Steel and tensile fabric building consisting of a combination of intellectual and industrial functions for oil exploration and drilling technology
The brief required maximum contact between scientists of different departments, and the provision of facilities for visits and meetings with university personnel and staff.
Under the fabric roof are the drilling-rig test station and the main social space known as the 'winter garden'. The fabric covering is Teflon coated glass fibre. It is uninsulated and transmits about 13 per cent daylight. A cat's cradle of cables transmits the weight of the fabric to the ground via four structures like suspension bridges.
Beside these main spaces are two independently structured wings. Monitoring and planning rooms look into the workshop, and small private offices line the outside face, where they enjoy views over the landscape. Knitting the spaces together is a network of circulation and informal meeting spaces, encouraging contact between colleagues within the scientific community.
Data
- Begun: Sep 1983
- Completed: Jan 1985
- Floor area: 5,644m2
- Sectors: Office, Education
- Total cost: £7.7M
- Procurement: Management
- Address: High Cross, Madingly Road, Cambridge, CB3 0EL, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Hopkins Architects
- Project architects: Chris Williamson, John Eger, John Pringle, Nic Bewick, Robin Snell
- Client: Schlumberger Cambridge Research
- Quantity surveyor: White & Turner
- Structural engineer: Lightwieght Structures Group
- Services engineer: YRM Engineers
- Acoustic consultant: Tim Smith Acoustics
- Main contractor: Bovis
- Structural engineer: Arup
Suppliers
- Structural steelwork: Blight & White Ltd
- Membrane roof: Stormeyer Ingenieurbau GnbH
- Steelwork: British Steel Corporation
- Roof membrane material: Verseidag Industrietextilen GmbH
- Roof Cables: Pfeifer Seil & Hebetechnik GmbH & Co
- Office & Laboratory glazing: Schuco: Heinz Schurmann GmbH
- Test station glazing: A/S Raufoss Ammunisjonsfabrikker