University celebrates excavation landmark

The University of Exeter has marked a milestone in the construction of its new £52.5m facility with a topping-out ceremony.

Members of the University staff and its partners, including representatives from BAM Construction, were present at the traditional ceremony that marked the construction of the building’s highest aspect, which measures at 40 meters.

The building is set to span across nine storeys and 7,500 square meters. At the time of the ceremony, 10,000 cubic meters of material had already been excavated from the site, which allowed the pouring of 5,700 square meters of concrete for the building’s foundations and concrete flooring. More than 100,000 bricks have already been laid as construction moves on to its latter stages.

The design of the building used the latest CAD (computer aided design) systems and combined it with the manufacturing process to create a state-of-the-art facility for the university. It will include a number of laboratories, offices, seminar and conference rooms, and teaching space.

The new facility will become that university’s Living Systems Institute (LSI) and will house over 200 scientists and researchers, with university staff hoping to conduct groundbreaking research into a diverse range of subjects relating to life-threatening diseases and other biological problems.

The institute is due to open in the autumn of 2016 with the aim of developing better diagnoses and treatments for some of the most complex and severe diseases known to man, as well as diseases that can threaten plants and animals that affect food security.