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UCL Bloomsbury Masterplan: refurbishment of Bernard Katz building

3 July 2013

UCL Estates are managing a major refurbishment to the upper floors of the Bernard Katz building.

Bernard Katz building

Floors 2-6, which were formerly occupied by a collaborative research centre shared between UCL and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, will provide new laboratories, a teaching/learning suite and associated spaces for the department of Biochemical Engineering.

The department will be moving over from the Roberts Building to join the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering in early 2014. Work to strip out the spaces has already been completed.

At the same time, work will also be carried out to relocate building services, which are currently provided from the Japanese Garden Plant Room Pavilion, to the ACBE via the Bernard Katz roof top plant room.

This piece of work will allow the Pavilion plant room to be demolished sometime in 2015-6, enabling the new Student Centre to open onto the Japanese Garden. Builders will take possession of the floors on 9th July and are due to complete the work in February 2014.

Head of Biochemical Engineering, Nigel Titchener-Hooker, explained that refurbishment to the Bernard Katz building, which adjoins the department's current premises, will help with the unification of the department as part of a long-term plan for infrastructural investment. Advantages for the student experience will include shared resources and further developments within a single physical identity.

Once completed, the project will help the department to maintain its internationally-leading presence in teaching, research and knowledge transfer through the projection of an integrated and forward-looking vision for the discipline, pioneered at UCL.


Angela Clemo, Project Manager, UCL Estates