New advanced laboratory and office space for UKBIC

UKBIC is the national battery manufacturing scale-up facility and is used by organisations with new or existing battery technologies. It is a key part of the Faraday Battery Challenge, a UK Government programme to fast track the development of cost-effective, high performance, durable, safe, low weight and recyclable batteries.

Self Architects was appointed by Office Principles to deliver two new projects at UKBIC. The first was a new, two-storey building in the warehouse process hall, housing 8,000 sq. ft. of open plan office space, meeting and conference rooms, and breakout facilities.

Office Principles also instructed Self to create a new single storey structure. The new building would need to offer a range of lab spaces for exploratory work, such as processing, forensics and CT scanning. Both projects needed to be delivered in a live environment, with sound proofing and dust monitoring equipment used to ensure optimum air quality at all times.