Project Wren R&D Facilities
RB (formerly Reckitt Benckiser) is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of household, health and hygiene goods and its roots lie in Hull’s Reckitt starch mill site where RB has created the Science & Innovations Centre, a new Centre of Scientific Excellence.
The £105M Science and Innovation Centre is one of only six similar worldwide research and development facilities. RB PLC is a great British success story and this project is part of the UK’s long-term economic plan to be a world leader in science and innovation.
Desco’s appointment, working as part of the D&B team was to provide detailed design of the M&E services, valued at approximately £20m, working from a concept provided by RB.
The project included both the upgrade of an existing 4000m² office building and the creation of a new 10,000m² industry-leading Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) healthcare development facility, featuring a number of leading product development capabilities including analytical, formulation and microbiology laboratories plus a stability testing unit.
The building has a very high M&E services content given the extensive laboratories and clean room facilities. These will support the creation and testing of innovations focused on meeting consumer’s health needs for leading brands such as Strepsils, Gaviscon and Nurofen. To reflect the international nature of the RB business the client used the LEED environmental assessment procedure to assess the scheme for optimum sustainable engineering and energy efficiency.
The scheme was designed in BIM with Desco taking prime responsibility for the detailed co-ordination of a highly complex and heavily M&E serviced process driven building model.
Project
Science & Innovation Centre, Hull
Location
Hull
Value
£105m