Big Data Institute

The four-storey research centre focuses on the analysis of large, complex and diverse data sets for research into the causes, consequences, prevention and treatment of disease.

Within the building a mixture of individual offices and open plan spaces are built around the central atrium. This light-filled foyer provides access to a café, seminar rooms, meeting rooms and break-out areas. 

The building houses a Main Equipment Room (MER) which contains 32 water cooled IT data cabinets sized to allow departments to draw down and analyse extremely large sets of information. When at full capacity, the MER and computing hardware is capable of delivering 600 million multiplications per second.

As part of the sustainability strategy, the building incorporates a 600 metre-long network of air intake tunnels known as the labyrinth. Set below the basement to maximise the benefit of constant ground temperature, it cools incoming air in summer and helps to reduce heating loads in winter. This labyrinth is one of only a few in the UK.

RIBA South Regional Award 2018