London, UK
The Molecular Sciences Research Hub is a new nine storey, 23,077sqm teaching and research building forming the centrepiece of Imperial College’s new west London urban campus
Project Details
Collective Team
It is the second phase to be completed on our 8Ha masterplan for the new Imperial West Campus for Imperial College, following the completion of Wood Lane Studios which provides accommodation for over 600 students and key workers on the site.
The master plan showing the three completed phases
Core to the scheme is our over-arching design concept where everybody is drawn and welcomed into the building via a clear arrival experience providing open vistas into the ground floor reception and circulation spaces. The transparency of the main atrium glazing draws the eye into the building and to the open floor plates arranged in a ‘U’ shaped form around this dramatic space.
The narrative of the internal space is thus easily translated, and the inner arrangements and navigation are readily comprehended, as soon as one enters the building, despite the sheer scale of the spaces.
The Molecular Sciences Research Hub forms the centrepiece of the Imperial West campus and evolved to include high specification technical and laboratory areas designed as a series of stepped floorplates, 15.0m in depth, and arranged around a full height, central atrium space.
Section through atrium
The main façade, with its stone and backlit perforated bronze cladding and triple glazed, ventilated curtain wall, creates a dynamic frontage to the new Imperial Square.
Details
The central, dramatic full height atrium provides an internal environment which engenders creativity and transparency, and encourages the physical and visual connectivity fundamental to innovative research and creates opportunities for constant interaction of students, staff and visitors and those vital serendipitous moments so important in an educational environment.
Flexibility, adaptability and sustainability are core features of the design, which also incorporates an Energy Centre with links to future development phases of the campus. The building has an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating.
The facility was formally launched in April 2019, and incorporates a flagship research facility – the Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions (ROAR) – which is the first national centre for the study of reactions, focusing on data-centric chemistry.
