Project of the Year (£20m-£50m): winner

Winner: Willmott Dixon – Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, University of Warwick

The University of Warwick’s new Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB) is a six-storey, 7,000 square-metre facility for up to 300 biomedical researchers. It comprises five floors of labs, plus social and collaborative spaces and a 400-seat lecture theatre.

It was built on a tight plot within the university’s Gibbet Hill campus, where there was a pressing need to minimise disruption throughout the build. The client also required levels of quality appropriate for a world-class research facility.

“Willmott Dixon and the client worked to assemble a first-class team of specialists to deliver this innovative and exciting scheme”

Judges’ comment

To meet these needs, Willmott Dixon opted for an ambitious 50 per cent level of pre-manufactured value (PMV). This meant going much further than industry norms, with offsite techniques being applied to a 27-metre-tall mega riser serving the entire building, as well as a pre-cast concrete frame, unitised glazing system, glulam and cross-laminated timber frame, and aesthetic concrete cladding.

As well as delivering the required quality, the PMV strategy reduced waste and embodied carbon, cut the number of vehicle movements, and improved programme predictability and onsite safety.

“Offsite manufacture at this scale was complex and challenging,” said Willmott Dixon, explaining that the mega riser alone featured 2,000 penetrations that had to be pre-cut and aligned, while allowing for differential movement between concrete and timber frames was another major challenge. “We had to make sure that all the interfaces would work well, and everything had to be designed and procured together early on, before manufacture,” the contractor added.

The university’s capital programme director David Hammond was among several representatives to provide a customer testimonial, applauding Willmott Dixon’s offsite approach, sustainable results, and close collaboration. “The IBRB is the exemplar and I think we'll see the lessons and approaches adopted rolled out across all our new projects,” he said.

The CN Awards judges agreed, saying the IBRB project provided an ambitious benchmark, “demonstrating that offsite manufacturing can be used for the most complex one-off projects”.

They added: “Willmott Dixon and the client worked together during the two-stage tender to assemble a first class team of specialists to deliver this innovative and exciting scheme, which really impressed the judges.”