Spotlight on science: Mountbatten Building
As we look ahead to next month’s opening of the Ray Dolby Centre, the new home for the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, we’re revisiting some of our previous work in the science sector, starting with the Mountbatten Building: a cutting-edge facility, delivered at speed, which continues to support leading research.
The University of Southampton is world-renowned for its excellence in the engineering sciences. The School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronic Research Centre at the university have boasted some of the world’s greatest minds as faculty members, including internet pioneers Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Prof Dame Wendy Hall.
Jestico + Whiles was commissioned to design a state-of-the-art facility for these departments following a 2005 fire. Three years later, the new Mountbatten Building was open to students and staff. The £55m project is a leading research centre for nanotechnology research, housing cutting-edge cleanroom facilities, laboratories and offices.
The diverse functional and spatial requirements of the building are reflected in its different forms: the technical areas occupy a fully glazed ‘plinth’, while office space is located in two metal-clad, double-storey wings above. These wings enclose an oasis-like roof garden over the plinth, while a separate adjoining structure, the Central Utilities Block, houses the complex equipment required to support the facility’s research.
Designed to embody the university’s open and forward-facing spirit while fulfilling complex technical requirements, the building’s extensive glazing showcases the research happening within. The building employs simple, dynamic forms with a palette of appropriately ‘hi-tech’ materials. A fractal motif known as a Gosper curve, derived from the field of nanotechnology, adorns the glazed exterior of the building.
Today, the Mountbatten Building continues to support leading research at the University of Southampton, which is ranked #1 in the UK for electronic and electrical engineering research.
Read more about the project here.
