Global engineering and built environment consultancy, Arup, is excited to announce the completion of the Life and Mind Building (LaMB) for the University of Oxford, the largest and most ambitious building in the university’s history.
Transforming the way psychological and biological science is undertaken in Oxford, the Life and Mind Building (LaMB), a state-of-the-art facility, will unite the Department of Experimental Psychology and the newly established Department of Biology, merging Plant Sciences and Zoology.
The £200m project was enabled, funded and delivered through an agreement with a commercial development partner, Legal & General (L&G), through their joint venture with the University – Oxford University Developments Ltd.
Officially opened this week, the building stands as a testament to Oxford’s dedication in innovation and addressing urgent global health challenges. It is also home to the new INEOS Oxford Institute for the study of antimicrobial resistance, a major future threat to global health, bringing £100M in funding for research.
Working alongside senior university stakeholders, as well as the dedicated project team – comprising NBBJ, Ramboll, Hoare Lea, Arcadis, Savills, Fira Landscape Ltd – and main contractor, Wates Group, Arup managed the project from inception to completion over an eight year period.
Initially appointed as multi-disciplinary consultant for the options appraisal, the firm provided robust benefits-led analysis and produced the strategic outline business case which played a key role in securing capital funding and shaping the building’s vision and priorities.
Arup led a programme of value-management and value-engineering, alongside cost partners Arcadis, which achieved a significant saving in the initial forecast project cost.
By establishing a function-led approach to defining user requirements, architect NBBJ's design achieved a 21% reduction in floor space compared to the original facilities. This strategy also accommodated a forecasted 23% increase in staff and student headcount to support planned future growth.
The building offers over 269,000 sq ft of transformative spaces for teaching, research, innovation and public engagement. It will provide a home for more than 1,400 scientists, academics, researchers, support staff and postgraduate students and become the main teaching location for around 1,000 undergraduate students with new lecture halls and teaching spaces.
Tim Crow, Director at Arup, commented: “Delivering the Life and Mind Building presented Arup with an exceptional project management challenge – realising the University’s transformative vision within ambitious constraints of performance, timeline and affordability.
“The LaMB project team rose to that challenge and have now created a building which delivers exceptional value for money and spatially efficient design, accommodating more research staff and students in less space. We are so pleased that Oxford’s world-class scientists now have a future-ready home for discovery and collaboration.”
Mike Coplowe, Head of Development Partnerships, Asset Management at L&G, said: “The Life & Mind Building represents a significant step forward in creating spaces that enable world-class research and collaboration. Arup’s approach to stakeholder engagement helped turn a complex brief into something clear, giving both our client and the delivery team confidence that we were all aligned. Their integrated project and contract management processes provided a strong framework throughout delivery, helping us achieve a successful outcome on a project of this scale.”
Chris Kennard, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Neurology, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, said: “The Life and Mind Building provides a first-class environment to collaborate research, teaching and public engagement in the biological and psychological sciences.
“There has been intense collaboration between the brilliant architectural team at NBBJ and the world-class Departments of Biology and Experimental Psychology, which will occupy the building. They have, together with Wates, Arup and Oxford University Development, provided the university with one of its finest, largest, most sustainable and flexible science buildings.”
