Designed in 1965 by Sir Leslie Martin and opened in 1971, the Tinbergen Building was a large Modernist building, housing over
1,600 staff and students and was demolished in 2020 to make way for the new Life and Mind Building.
The Tinbergen building housed the Fume and Solvent extract plantroom for the adjacent Chemistry Teaching Laboratory.
SES Engineering Services (SES) and Prism Offsite Manufacturing were commissioned to fabricate a modular construction, bespoke fume and solvent extract plantroom and locate this on screw piles on the south football pitch until the new facility within the LaMB building is formed and commissioned.
SES carried out the internal remodelling of existing laboratories and teaching rooms to facilitate the demolition employed by
Erith who were the Principal Contractor. The project was executed during the COVID-19 global pandemic which saw various
challenges with a revised start date of 30 March 2020 (a week later than scheduled) and completed on time. The project
made way for the creation of the new Life and Mind Building.
Creating a world-class centre for life and mind sciences
The Life and Mind Building will be the largest building project the University has ever undertaken and will significantly
improve the way psychological and biological science is undertaken in Oxford, helping scientists to solve some of our
major global challenges. It will be home to the Department of Experimental Psychology and a new Department of Biology,
combining the existing Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology. The funding and delivery of the building will be
undertaken in partnership with Legal & General.
Other Case Studies
GSK Aseptic Manufacturing Facility - Q Block
SES worked to a detailed schedule of works to install all mechanical and electrical (M&E) building services, ensuring that there was minimum disruption to the live manufacturing site which completed in January 2020.
University of Leeds – School of Chemical and Process Engineering
The University of Leeds embarked on an ambitious £520m five year programme of works to transform its entire campus to support its vision for increasing knowledge and opportunity with a focus on world-leading research, collaborative industry partnerships and further enhancing the student experience for 1,000+ students who come from 70+ countries to study in the building.
The Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC)
Handed over by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and Prime Minister, Theresa May in June 2018, the DNRC will be operated by the Ministry of Defence when it opens later this year.
