Nexus
Desco provided the M&E services detailed design on behalf of Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick for the University of Leeds’ exciting new innovation and enterprise centre known as Nexus.
Nexus is a high-profile home for research and the promotion of innovative collaboration at both national and international levels. The building is located at a new southern gateway to the university campus and forms a key part of the University of Leeds’ masterplan.
Nexus actively brings together business and academic minds around shared goals to drive innovation. It’s where ideas, expertise and opportunity collide, creating new value and developing collaborative partnerships between entrepreneurs, businesses and world-leading researchers.
The six-storey development comprises of 6,684m2 of high quality, flexible, study, research and development labs and varying sized office workspaces.
The ground floor houses exhibition space; an 80-cover café; a business lounge; a 120-seat lecture theatre; four seminar spaces (each seating 70, with sliding partitions to create two, three or four spaces); and open/semi-private space.
The first floor has further extensive open/semi-private collaboration spaces and 12 meeting rooms. It houses the teams from Nexus, Research and Innovation services and other University business facing professional service teams.
The second floor has 12 lab spaces each with write-up space, eight initially fitted out at category 2 and four as generic labs that can be used by businesses for mechanical and electrical/electronic research and development. The second floor also has office space, and the remaining floors are 100% office space. There are some 60 office spaces, ranging from two-person spaces upwards.
The scheme achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating, along with an EPC A rating.
Project
Nexus
Location
Leeds
Value
£40m