The NDM Building is a cutting-edge multidisciplinary centre that links clinical research to medical application. The integrated facility houses the Nuffield Department of Medicine – which operates at the front lines of drug discovery for heart disease, cancer and HIV – and sits adjacent to two other medical research facilities designed by Make. Together these form part of our long-term masterplan to extend and modernise the University of Oxford’s Old Road Campus.
Our design crowns the lab with a tapering prow that reflects its prominent position at the head of the campus. Inside are spaces carefully crafted to create an intimate scale and establish a sense of ownership for the research groups that inhabit it. The building’s full height is immediately revealed on entry, creating a welcoming and legible internal arrangement, while a dramatic elm-clad staircase draws the eye, winding up through the four-storey atrium and unifying the floors both physically and visually.
This sense of connectivity has dramatically improved collaboration and communication among the buildings’ occupants, further facilitating pioneering research that will benefit the global community. It also won the building an Oxford Presentation Trust Award in 2014.
The design of this building was inspired by its site. This led to an innovative internal layout that delivers a delightfully spacious open-plan laboratory and write-up spaces bathed in natural daylight.
Staircase
The cantilevered timber staircase extends across all four floors of the atrium.
Laboratory space
The NDM Research Building is one of the largest centres for biomedical research in Europe. The interior spaces were designed to establish a strong sense of ownership and belonging for the researchers, with a domestic, intimate scale and feel.
The materials were chosen to allow light in and offer multiple views both of the interior and the external surroundings, maximising visual permeability and creating a sense of spatiality and transparency.
