Cobalt Building, Didcot

The Cobalt building is a new state-of-the-art facility for spectroscopy research and development. It forms part of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Didcot.

The Harwell campus is a site of national importance, and it boasts several world firsts. These include the development of the first energy producing fission reactor.

SDC were hired to construct the building and they used a mixed-se steel framed, cladding building on pad foundations. The work comprised of construction, and fitting out a workspace building which included laboratories, open plan office space, meeting rooms, a restaurant and training centre.

Peter Marshall Steel Stairs provided steel stairs and steel balustrades for the Cobalt building. External works on the site included the provision of a new 108 space car park, cycle storage and landscaping.

Located on a former RAF base, to the south of Oxford, the site is home to over 200 organisations. These range from start-up enterprises to multi-national organisations. Business activities for these companies include healthcare, space exploration, detector systems and green enterprises. The site is over 700 acres and over 6,000 people work there across public and private organisations.