Briefing to Occupation: London Centre for Nanotechnology Overview

Science and engineering research is essential for human culture as well as for finding the solutions to social, environmental and medical problems. The London Centre for Nanotechnology was a small project at a rapidly growing university. It is an interdisciplinary research institute held jointly between University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London. The dense urban site is very close to the major and busy Euston Road and below- and above-ground rail lines, including stations characterised by strongly accelerating and decelerating trains. The site and building envelope itself had been selected previously for a centre devoted to instrumentation for optical astronomy, with a planned occupancy of perhaps 40 people. It had only a single basement, and six levels at or above ground, encompassing considerable atrium space. The design brief was simple – to house and promote the solution of important problems in fields from information technology to biomedicine using interdisciplinary teams from UCL working especially with partners from Imperial College.