£50m plan to create “world-class” Reading facility

A new £50m building earmarked for the University of Reading would provide “world-class” facilities if planning permission is secured, the institution’s deputy vice-chancellor has said.Proposals have been unveiled for a new Health & Life Sciences Building at the university, which would provide 81,350 sq ft of lab and teaching space.Designed by Stride Treglowan, the project involves the consolidation of Reading’s health and life sciences teaching, bringing together the School of Biological Sciences – currently hosted in six buildings across the Whiteknights campus – into a new facility.The building will include research laboratories, teaching facilities and office space for academics, postgraduate researchers and administrative staff. It will also become the new site of the Cole Museum of Zoology.Subject to planning permission, the new building will be spread over four floors and is expected to be complete by summer 2019.The site of the building will be in place of the current Engineering Building, which will be demolished in early 2017, and as it is situated between Wokingham and Reading Borough Council, Wokingham acting as the lead council for the application. Teaching labs can be configured to teach groups of up to 280 – making it one of the largest teaching labs in the UK. In addition, two floors of research laboratory space will serve the needs of 95 academic researchers and 145 doctoral students.