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
Gasholders London
Set in King’s Cross – one of the largest areas of central London to be developed in the last 150 years – the circular Gasholders London project is a pioneering example of cutting-edge offsite manufacturing and prefabrication.
Newcastle District Energy Centre
Supporting the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne in its endeavours to go carbon neutral by 2030, SES Engineering Services (SES) was directly appointed by Engie as main contractor to design and install complex MEP solutions on Newcastle District Energy Centre.
Teesside Energy Centre
SES Engineering Services (SES) was appointed to design, install and commission the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) services on Teesside Energy Centre which was constructed by a consortium between Lagan Construction and Babcock & Wilcox Vølund (BWV).
