Austin was commissioned to replace existing buildings to provide increased capacity and an enhanced facility, to develop a design to respond to an extremely constrained site adjacent to a cliff face and to create a solution that addresses the unique position facing the sea. This posed a challenge as we had to respond to the Planning and Conservation Area requirements of the high visibility site.

The building design has been developed using a functionality zoned approach which also responds to the exceptional site constraints. Plant rooms have been positioned to the rear of the site addressing the cliff face. The highly serviced laboratories are adjacent to the plant rooms to minimise service runs. Write-up and office accommodation is positioned along the front of the building to take advantage of the sea views.

The laboratories and offices are designed with flexibility and adaptability as a major requirement.
The interior design philosophy is an innovative and fairly radical approach to meet both functional and financial objectives by providing a combination of high performance elements with basic factory finished building components.

Sea views offer a dramatic outlook which have been fully utilised in the building design. This has been enthusiastically supported by the Local Authority.

Austin provided Architectural, Structural and Drainage design services design with on site quality support.

The completed project achieved a BREEAM Rating of Very Good.