Zeus Building, Harwell

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Flexible and adaptable, the newest science and technology building within the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, provides R&D, laboratory and office space. Designed to nurture innovation, it sits within a dynamic environment of numerous organisations of national and international significance mostly working within the space, healthtech and energy sectors. Divided into two rectilinear wings, thoughtfully designed to retain an existing cluster of trees on site, it is a hybrid building able to adapt to the needs of the businesses and the people who inhabit it with an inbuilt ability for adding up to two-storey mezzanines if or as required.

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Set within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the building opens out to the landscape, and the project has involved the retention of neighbouring mature trees

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Context

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The facade's main materials are weathering steel and larch timber panelling. They will change with age and time, creating more of a sense of a building set into its rural context

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The landscape - paths, pavilions, seating areas - engages people with their surroundings and each other, contributing to the sense of community and wellbeing across the Harwell Campus

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Facade and window detail

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Perforated steel panels provide researchers privacy and control over solar gain

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Flexibility is at the heart of the design - the mechanical nature of the building allows for construction and potential deconstruction when required to fit different tenants needs

City
Oxford, UK
Uses
Science and health, Workplace
Client
Harwell Campus Oxford
Status
Completed
Size
3,000 sqm
Collaborators
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Structure: eHRW

Services: Qoda

Landscape: Exterior Architecture

Project manager: Bidwells

Cost: Faithful & Gould

Planning: Carter Jonas

CDM: Bureau Veritas

Contractor: Barnwood Construction

Photogaphy: Jack Hobhouse