Higher Education Sector Study Trip

On Friday, Plan A’s education sector team visited two award winning projects by Stanton Williams in Cambridge.

Planned as the first of a series of study tours looking at higher education and research buildings designed by our Clients, we were able to see The Sainsbury Laboratory and the Simon Sainsbury Centre at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

In particular the team were given an insight into the work being undertaken within the various laboratory spaces, and how the building has been designed to support innovation and research into plant growth and development.

Some key takeaways:

• The building is a genuine 24/7 building with the research having to be supported throughout the night
• The importance of inter-disciplinary research on the site and how the building facilitates collaboration between specialists in biological, physical and mathematical sciences
• The labs are designed for flexibility – the experimental research carried out includes the use of wet-labs and computational modelling of plants
• Daylight and visual connectivity to the outside is important for user comfort and wellbeing
• Transparency, visibility and social space is essential to creating a sense of community

The Plan A Team would like to thank Stanton Williams for helping us organise the visits and Elisabeth Burmeister the Events and Outreach Manager at the Sainsbury Laboratory for guiding us around the laboratory.

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