Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre, University of Cambridge

The Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre is a high research laboratory for the University of Cambridge. The new laboratory is located adjacent to the existing Cancer Research UK building to the west of Addenbrooke’s hospital. The purpose of this building is to bring together medical research groups and establish a new centre of excellence for the development of medical treatments.

Curtins were responsible for the design and detailing of the offsite engineered hybrid structural frame for this new Research Laboratory which consists of a seven-storey concrete superstructure, 5m deep basement and rooftop plant zone. The floors typically consist of 300mm thick precast hollow-core prestressed concrete units with 200mm of reinforced insitu topping supported on composite steel/concrete Delta beams. The Delta beams span onto precast concrete columns and walls.

The 5m basement is retained using 150mm thick precast slabs with 250mm of reinforced insitu concrete to provide a total minimum thickness of 400mm basement walls. The façade cladding system consists of 9m tall precast concrete panels, each covering two storeys and delivered to site fully glazed at the production factory. Curtins designed both the precast cladding elements and supporting precast beams to movement tolerances within the specified joint width.