Project Atria Ground-breaking

On Thursday 27 February 2020, SDC held a ground-breaking ceremony for Project Atria – the University of Cambridge’s new Heart and Lung Research Institute.

Situated on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, adjacent to the new Royal Papworth Hospital (RPH), the Institute will contain 8,000 sq.m of research space, spread across three floors. The building, which will be linked to the RPH via a basement tunnel, will provide a 10-bed clinical research facility, along with state-of-the-art laboratory space for 22 principal investigators and 250 researchers.

The building itself is being constructed using an in-situ concrete frame that is clad with a mixture of anodised bronze rain screen cladding panels and curtain walling. The cladding panels, positioned vertically, will create light patterns as the sun moves throughout the day. In addition, the structure has a curvilinear form to reflect the external massing of both the RPH and nearby AstraZeneca HQ. Green credentials, meanwhile, will include PV panels, an atrium green roof and naturally ventilated dry research spaces.

Internally, Project Atria accommodates a Clinical Research Facility and Education Suite on the ground floor, with Wet and Dry Research laboratories located on the first and second floors together with a roof mounted plant room and external plant behind an elevated parapet.

The ceremony, which saw SDC’s Managing Director Francis Shiner break ground, was attended by Project Leader, Brian Williams; Vice Chancellor Professor, Stephen Toope; Head of the School of Clinical Medicine; Professor Patrick Maxwell, Technical Liaison Officer; Carol McDonald (all from the University of Cambridge); along with Professor John Wallwork, Chair of the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.