Refurbishment Transforms John Innes Centre Building

Our project to refurbish the second floor wing of the Bateson Building on the Norwich Research Park (NRP) campus has been completed. The refurbishment, carried out by Pentaco, allows for the relocation of the Computational and Systems Biology (CSB) department from their existing location to the new facilities.

The refurbishment of the 1970’s concrete frame Bateson Building has transformed the former dark and gloomy corridor and highly serviced, large open plan laboratories and individual office spaces into a series of light and airy work spaces with a clear department identity.

The project team underwent a prolonged period of engagement with representatives of the CSB and Metabolic biology departments to establish their requirements and aspirations for their new home.

In response to these, we developed a strategy of bringing together project leader and project group offices as a cluster, with two project leaders and two project group spaces sharing an access/breakout space.  This strategy serves to break up the rigidity of the existing corridor, and also allows each working space to have an external window, as well as creating a shared break out work/social space.

While the occupants of the Bateson building wished to create a highly open and light feel to the space, there was also a requirement to create highly private and sound proofed working areas.  In order to meet these seemingly contradictory requirements, the project incorporates a large number of double glazed screens, which provide a high degree of acoustic separation whilst allowing light to penetrate deep into the space and providing occupants with a sense of other people also working within the space.  The glazed screens also provide a double function, as they are used by the occupants as large format glass write on surfaces.

The project will help to bring CSB closer to the other scientific departments at the John Innes Centre, and allows for the future expansion of CSB.