Project:
The UCL Sainsbury Wellcome Centre
The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is an entirely new campus for University College London, bringing together many of the leading research scientists in the field of Neural Science and Circuits from across the world. The campus is substantial in size, occupying one complete city block on Howland Street in central London.
The building design, developed in great detail by Ian Ritchie Architects, is a reflection of the building function, being almost machine like in its response to intended building activity. This is immediately evident from the ‘skin’ of the building, with the daylight permitting North façade, and is carried through to the building interior where artificial light creates visual rhythms and deliberately sets up spectral shifts and challenges – intentionally interacting with our visual sense.
These visual rhythms and textures are set up around a range of internal spaces that include lecture rooms and theatres, meeting spaces, laboratories and ‘write-up’ spaces. Again, the internal arrangement of these spaces is influenced by building activity and the human preference for spaces with high visibility and connectivity, with a range of vantage points and various visual volumes and permeability.
The very centre of the building houses the important theoretical computational laboratories. These spaces, set out over three levels, are fully adaptable, facilitating a complete range of research activity over extended durations and periods. These spaces, together with the other elements of the building, are supported by a digital lighting control system, a system that is part of a broader demand-only building control infrastructure.
In addition to the translucent North façade, the exterior of the Sainsbury Wellcome centre scheme includes a Pocket Park, the Howland Street Colonnade and a large ‘tenant’ Roof Terrace. The completed project achieved BREEAM Excellent and has been the recipient of many awards including the RICS Project of the Year 2017 and the Premio Internazionale Ischia di Architettura Innovation Prize, 2020.
The completed project achieved BREEAM Excellent and has been the recipient of many awards including the RICS Project of the Year 2017 and the Premio Internazionale Ischia di Architettura Innovation Prize, 2020.
