A New Light on the Steinmetz Building

Photos: Glamox ©jwpimaging

Sosei Heptares (the corporate brand of publicly-listed Sosei Group Corporation) relocated its global R&D facilities from Welwyn Garden City to the Cambridge life science cluster. The new facility is named The Steinmetz Building as a tribute to Michael Steinmetz (1947-2016) who was a leader in the biopharmaceutical industry for over 35 years. The 35,000 sq. ft. building will enable the company to continue its rapid expansion, accommodating around 130 skilled staff from around the world. It will create a centre of excellence for Sosei Heptares’ discovery and clinical development of novel small molecules and biologics derived from its unique GPCR-focused structure-based drug design platform.

The building has gone through an extensive renovation process where it was stripped back to the original structure and completely re-fitted throughout. The result is a modern, high-tech building where a playful use of bright colours creates an inviting and attractive ambiance. The main contractor for the project was the Bedford based company SDC Builders. Glamox has supplied the majority of the lighting to the project through the consulting company KJ Tait Engineers and the subcontractor Munro Building Services. This includes lighting for labs, offices, circulation areas and social zones.

 

Challenging ceilings

KJ Tait Engineers has been in charge of both the mechanical and electrical part of the project. According to Electrical Engineer Andrew Carey, the project has run smoothly, even though these types of facilities are never straight forward.

“Labs are always challenging when it comes to the electrical installation because there are so many mechanical and electrical services in the ceiling void that there’s little room left for anything else. The Glamox C91 luminaire made things easier because of its shallow depth. We are also happy with the support we received from our contacts in Glamox”, Carey said.

According to Area Sales Manager Jamie Whitten in Glamox, the C91 luminaire was also chosen because it’s designed to accommodate special ceiling systems like the metal grid ceilings required by Sosei Heptares for the lab areas. “Another feature that appealed to Sosei Heptares was the fact that it’s a backlit luminaire with a maximum illuminated surface. It also controls glare very well”, Whitten explains.

 

Specific requirements

To Sosei Heptares it is important that their staff have the best working conditions possible when they carry out their lab work. Thus the company specified a high lux level for all work surfaces in the laboratories. “We also supplied lighting to an area with two electro-magnetic microscopes. This made it important to be able to document low emission of electromagnetic waves from our luminaires. Fortunately Glamox carry out EMC testing in our laboratories, and due to the high quality of our labs, these tests were accepted as documentation from Sosei Heptares.

 

Complete solution

Besides the C91-R Glamox has also supplied recessed and pendent interior luminaires for the offices and downlights for the circulation areas and social zones. “As we progressed through design development with Munro Building Services, Glamox was selected due to having the required product range to meet the varied applications throughout the building, and to meet the strict luminaire requirements of lifetime, efficiency, light quality, and ceiling integration, along with the ability to deliver design and technical support.” Whitten said.