One North Quay: Europe’s largest life sciences building

One North Quay, Europe’s largest and most technically advanced commercial health and life sciences building by some way, will form the heart of a new world-class life sciences hub in Canary Wharf, creating new opportunities for the life sciences community in London and changing the landscape of the capital’s capabilities in this field.

Ramboll was appointed as structural engineer for the development, in addition to designing supporting infrastructure to enable future developments on the wider site.

Building a 23-storey life sciences building posed a number of unique challenges.

Life science buildings tend to be heavy structures to meet their vibration and loading briefing criteria, so can often be carbon-intensive structures. Challenging the brief from the outset and constantly refining the plans throughout the design stages was key to eliminating quantities of embodied carbon from the building. 20,000 tCO2e of structural upfront embodied carbon was avoided by implementing incremental improvements between the feasibility stage and the tender design. This amounts to a 50% reduction in projected embodied carbon within the structure over the course of the design process.

The location and size of the development posed further challenges. The building had to be designed to account for a Grade I listed dock wall beneath it, as well as existing adjacent infrastructure, including a DLR viaduct. Ramboll’s strong track record of designing world-class life sciences buildings, coupled with intimate knowledge of the site having already designed the extension of the DLR adjacent to the site, was key to resolving these structural complexities.

Once complete in 2027, One North Quay will set a new benchmark in its field for sustainability and will help meet the fast-growing need for bespoke life sciences spaces in London, with the building’s grid laid out for lab bench integration.

Despite the complexity of the project, through close collaboration with architects KPF and the project’s joint venture partners, Canary Wharf Group and Kadans Science Partner, planning permission was granted only 18 months after the design commenced.