Cutting edge science ‘without compromise’

Architects, Sheppard Robson, have masterminded the internal design of the £167 m Molecular Sciences Research Hub (MSRH) on the Imperial College London’s White City Campus, described by the College as ‘the UK’s most significant scientific development since the Francis Crick Institute’ (HEJ – February 2017), and reportedly the largest investment in a university building in 21st-century London. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports, the architects’ challenge was to convert a former office building into a state-ofthe-art research facility, where the collective expertise, ingenuity, and imagination of some of the world’s leading molecular scientists could be brought together in a hi-tech space, incorporating the latest equipment, that would foster collaboration and encourage scientific discovery.

The flagship MSRH laboratory, research, and office building provides a new ‘hub’ for Imperial College London’s chemistry research activities, and, ICL hopes, will act as a catalyst for a new molecular sciences ‘neighbourhood’ in White City. It was officially opened on 12 April this year by London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, with Imperial College’s President, Alice Gast, Science Museum Group Chair, Dame Mary Archer, and Chair of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition for 1851, Bernard Taylor, all present. Designed – like the Francis Crick Institute – to break down traditional barriers between scientific disciplines, it will, the College says, ‘convene’ the collective expertise of over 800 scientists, clinicians, engineers, and business partners, ‘to address global challenges across areas such as energy, healthcare, and sustainability’. The ICL White City campus’s ‘ethos’ is co-location – ‘bringing together researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry in one place to create a critical mass of activities across science, innovation, and commercialisation’. Imperial College says of the MSRH: “Prioritising openness and flexibility, and facilitating interaction and links between diverse and specialised research activities, the Hub’s modular design creates a fluid research environment. The aim is to create a place where new research and teaching spaces can be easily adapted in response to emerging priorities and collaborations.”

Supporting ‘innovative science and engineering’