COVID-19
We are doing everything we can to ensure we have continuity of business, while heeding the very latest Government advice. We monitor this daily and adapt our procedures and messaging immediately to any changes that are required. We would like to express our sympathies to everyone who has been affected and continues to be affected by the COVID-19 virus.

We would also like to show our support to our teams and key workers who are working tirelessly across the country.

For more about how Willmott Dixon group are responding to the everyday changes of Covid-19 please click here.

Science & Technology Facilities Council RAL - National Space Technology Centre, Harwell

The delivery and fit-out of R&D facilities, laboratories and commercial space
_2

Project Stats

Duration
92 weeks
Value
£21 m
Size
95,000 sq ft
Sector
Science and Technology

Project Story

The RAL Space facility at the Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire is a world-leading facility that tests satellites prior to being sent to space. It houses the largest and most sophisticated space design, production and research facilities in Europe.

This highly complex laboratory provides very exacting research and monitoring environments, including thermal vacuum chambers, 15 clean rooms and low vibration chambers. These recreate conditions in outer space and also at blast-off. The 7,500 sq m building includes varying layouts to accommodate the R&D facilities, laboratories and commercial space. It is a key part of the Science & Technology Facility Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory that makes the UK a leader in space research.

Services made up 40% of the overall project value and were key to the overall success of the project. This
meant that collaborative working with the customer and the design team at an early stage was essential. Where possible, we worked with our design team and supply chain partners to prefabricate the larger M&E plant areas as well as using BIM to programme the complicated structural steelwork and service runs.
Project Outcomes
  • Advanced research spaces
  • Laboratories and observation areas
  • Delivery of complex M&E
  • Collaborative design approach
  • Complex M&E requirements
  • Creation of quality office space to facilitate new and modern ways of working

Other Projects

Contact us

Like what you see? Want to work with our amazing team? Contact us today
Contact us