BAM has been appointed to deliver a new £96 million research centre for the University of Leeds.

The Sir William Henry Bragg Building is being developed to become a new home for the schools of Computing and Physics & Astronomy, as well as incorporating the Bragg Centre for Materials Research.

Features include the sympathetic refurbishment of the existing Grade 2 listed Old Mining Building, with an additional roof top extension, as well as new seven-storey building providing a total gross floor area of more than 16,000m2. The new-build element will link directly to the university's existing engineering and chemistry facilities.

Led by Arcadis, the Sir William Henry Bragg Building has been designed by architecture practice ADP. Project Management is provided by Arcadis, Cost Management is provided by Gardiner & Theobald, Civil and Structural Engineering by Curtins and Arup are the Building Services Engineer. The project aims to achieve a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating.


Overall, the facility will support the long-term development and integration of engineering and physical sciences, bringing complimentary research areas dispersed across the university campus to a single location.

Construction is due to begin this spring, with completion scheduled for summer 2020.

Dennis Hopper, Director of Facilities Management at the University of Leeds, said: "This is a technically complex building and is a flagship in our ongoing commitment to enhance interdisciplinary research and student education. We're pleased to be working with experienced contractors who we are confident will deliver the whole project to the highest standards possible."

Jason Pink, Construction Director at BAM, said: "We are delighted to have won this complex and important project for the University of Leeds. We are currently working through the detailed design with the University and are looking forward to working collaboratively with the University to deliver this fantastic facility during the Summer of 2020."

The building and research centre are named after Sir William Henry Bragg, a former professor of physics at Leeds who won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his son, Sir William Lawrence Bragg, for the development of X-ray crystallography.

(LM/MH)