Working in collaboration with Sewell Construction (Main Contractor), Watson Batty (Architects) and Elite (Mechanical and Electrical Engineers) our Leeds team were Civil and Structural Engineers on the £3.1 million Research Centre.

The new centre houses researchers from both University of Bradford and Leeds, alongside clinicians from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It aims to improve health and social care across generations, from the very young to the elderly.  This flagship partnership will put the research findings rapidly into practice and embraces the groundbreaking Born in Bradford and Born in Bradford’s Better Starts Initiatives. 

Opened in October, the Research Centre was partially funded by a £1 million grant from the charitable Wolfson Foundation, which awards grants to support excellence within the fields of the arts, science, medicine, humanities, education and health and disability.  Further contributions were made by both University of Bradford and University of Leeds. 

The building structure comprises steel frame on pad foundations, along with integral RC retaining walls to form semi-basement to rear of the building.  A two-storey building, the first floor was precast hollowcore slabs on steel frame with a structural metal deck to the roof.  The external fabric comprises brickwork up to first floor, with a structural framing system behind, with curtain walling to the main entrance.  Above the first floor the brickwork was replaced by vertical timber cladding resulting in a very attractive building.

The construction project provided many challenges for the team, the site was extremely congested and based in the middle of a staff car park so it was essential to ensure pedestrians could safely access and leave the site area.  Drainage of the site was another challenge, 750 tonnes of soil needed to be removed to prepare for the underground drainage before the foundations could be laid. The end result is an attractive two storey building with two large open plan office areas, a large seminar room and six smaller rooms to be used as meeting rooms or quiet rooms.  A fantastic facility for the people of Yorkshire.