Beecroft wins S-Lab Award for excellent science buildings

The £50m building, purpose-built for the Physics department, took top spot in the Chemistry and Physical Sciences category.

It beat other contenders from all over the world including Australia’s Federal Police Forensic Data Centre, Tsinghua University’s Ocean Center in China, the University of Liverpool’s Materials Innovation Factory and UMass Amherst’s Physical Sciences Building.

The results were announced at the annual S-Lab/UKSPA Conference in Birmingham last week. The awards aim to recognise the best new buildings or complete refurbishments that contain laboratories or are otherwise aimed at scientific purposes. The judges were impressed by the exceptional facilities the Beecroft provides for both theoretical and experimental physics. The former is served by superb collaborative spaces for groups of all sizes, while below ground the building’s experimental facilities are world-leading, including an astonishing degree of isolation from external vibrations and other environmental conditions that would otherwise interfere with the research taking place there.

The result of a major construction initiative managed by the Capital Projects team within Estates Services, the Beecroft is currently shortlisted for two more awards – it is in the running for a Construction Excellence SECBE Award, due to be announced at the end of June, and for a RIBA South Award 2019. The results of the judging process for the latter award will be made public on 23 May, and the winners will form the basis for the shortlists for the still more prestigious RIBA National Awards and the RIBA Stirling Price for the year’s best new building.