A new international centre for medical teaching and research has been built in Cardiff. Designed by Powell Dobson Architects and built by Vinci, the Cochrane Building accommodates the School of Medicine on Cardiff University’s Heath Park Campus at the University Hospital of Wales.
One of the largest facilities of its kind in the UK, it brings together all the school’s departments in a single location and is home to more than 3,000 students and staff.
The age and condition of the previous facilities on the Heath Park campus and a steep increase in student numbers had led to an acute shortage of suitable facilities for medical professionals. The new scheme is designed as three interlinked areas unified by two atrium spaces. It accommodates a twin-storey inter-professional library, clinical skills simulation training facilities for medical students, postgraduate teaching areas, seminar space, student support services, group study rooms and an innovative ‘learning hub’.
The 6,300sq m Cochrane Building is a low energy building that is designed to BREEAM ‘excellent’ aspirations. Curtain walling from Technal allows high levels of natural light into the centre of the building. Another distinctive feature of the building envelope is a series of staggered aluminium panels finished in a bright lime green, providing a lively accent to the scheme’s otherwise neutral palette of gun metal grey and white render.