Schlumberger Gould Research Centre and attached perimeter wall to the north

Schlumberger Gould Research Centre and attached perimeter wall to the north

Scientific research facilities and offices erected between 1983 and 1985 for Schlumberger Research Ltd., designed by Sir Michael Hopkins and Partners (now Hopkins Architects). The structural engineers were Anthony Hunt Associates and Ove Arup and Partners, who also designed the roof membrane.

The building is constructed of a tubular steel frame with concrete floor surfaces, polished in the Winter Garden. The main roof covering is a Teflon-coated fibreglass membrane. Window frames are of powder-coated steel.

On plan, the building lies along a north-south axis and is broadly rectangular. It comprises a central area housing the staff canteen, or Winter Garden, and the experimental Test Station adjoining to the north. This is flanked on either side by two single-storey long ranges, designed to house offices, laboratories, a workshop, conference and discussion areas, a computer room, a kitchen, and a library. Access is gained through a central doorway off a terrace to the south. Doors at the north end allow loading access to the Test Station. Fire-escape doorways on both sides are situated at each main truss. The whole is contained within an earth-embanked concrete retaining wall, which becomes shallower towards the south and extends beyond the footprint of the building to enclose a service yard at the north end.

The metal frame of the building is externally expressed, and the bay system is clear from outside. The central section is 24 metres wide with a structure independent of the side ranges. Tubular-steel prismatic girders form four trusses, held vertical by connecting horizontal side girders of the same form. Each truss is anchored to the ground by steel rods. An exoskeleton of cables and tubular masts supports the membrane fabric of the roof covering and shapes it into three polygonal 'bubbles'. The membrane is made of single-layer Teflon-coated glass-fibre fabric in white, the colour intended to help temperature regulation.

The side ranges are constructed of tubular-steel posts on a 3.6-metre grid, each spanning 13.6 metres and supporting Pratt roof trusses. A plastic-membrane-insulated deck forms the flat roofing of the side ranges, which have full-height polyester-powder-coated steel sliding and fixed window frames, fitted with external blinds. The blinds are an addition made by the owners; an acknowledgment that the provision made in the original design to mitigate solar gain was insufficient. The gable walls and recesses have ribbed-profile steel-sheet cladding. From the fire escapes, ground level is reached via aluminium steps. Originally without handrails, these have been added by the owners for safety reasons. External stacks for the air-handling systems survive at the north end.

Internally, the building is principally arranged as when first completed. Doorways at each end give access to full-length, off-centre corridors through both side ranges, off which access is given to rooms on both sides: naturally ventilated offices on the outside offering views outwards, and air-conditioned offices on the inward side looking into the Test Station and Winter Garden. The original melamine partitions creating cross divisions and glazed corridor doors and partitions for offices survive in situ in large part. The side ranges were designed to be occupied flexibly with movable partitions, and the owners have managed the side rooms accordingly. The door and window ironmongery has been renewed as sympathetically as possible where necessary. The discussion spaces were found not entirely suitable and all but one have been amended sympathetically. Main reception was originally in the Winter Garden on the west side, opposite the kitchen, but is now accommodated in the atrium of the second phase building. The glass and steel dining furniture in the Winter Garden was designed by Michael Hopkins but is not fixed.

A glazed partition separates the Winter Garden and the Test Station. The designers used the natural fall of land to allow the Test Station to be sunken and for a partial basement under the side ranges, open to the Test Station. The Winter Garden floor is of polished concrete tiles, while the Test Station floor, also of concrete, is part solid and part perforated slabs over a service void. Beneath the floor is a central sunken high-pressure testing chamber under heavy concrete slabs. In addition there are three 4-metre-diameter circular pits on the west side, the deepest being 20 metres deep, and a flow-loop pit on the west side. Access from the side ranges is via a steel and aluminium platform at the north end with steps down to the Test Station floor. The platform accommodates a raiseable central section that enables goods access from the north doors. A gantry crane allows heavy loads to be moved and for the lifting of the pressure-testing chamber surface slabs. The services are brought in from underneath the floor and run in an undercroft beneath the side ranges and are therefore hidden for the most part.

An earth-embanked concrete retaining wall extends to the north beyond the footprint of the building to form a service yard. Here the wall has concrete steps up to a walkway on top. The yard was designed to contain substations and a mud tank, now removed.