Urban Sciences Building
The building is designed for teaching, laboratory research, events and testing real-time smart technologies for urban sustainability. Within it are Smart Grid, National Green Infrastructure Facility and The Urban Observatory, establishing this as a vibrant hub of research and development.
Newcastle University has brought together cutting-edge research in computing, energy, water, digital urban sensing and infrastructure to discover solutions for global challenges, working with stakeholders in government, business, industry and communities. It is revolutionising how cities will look, behave and interact within their environment to improve life for communities and create opportunities for sustainable economic growth.
It is home one of the world’s leading schools of computing alongside a series of innovative research labs to inform urban infrastructure, industry and policy, and provides an evidence base to be used by city planners and future developers.
No other building in the world draws together these types of facilities in an integrated way and attracts like-minded businesses, such as Siemens and their MindSphere lab, which helps us better harness data.
The building itself is a lab for innovative research that has wide applications for businesses and urban communities, and has already been awarded BREEAM Innovation Credit for going beyond best practice in sustainability. Containing over 4,000 digital sensors, computing technology is embedded throughout the structure, making it one of the most monitored and high-performance buildings in the country.
At a glance
- £58m development, open since September 2017
- 134,500 sq ft, home to Urban Observatory, National Green Infrastructure Facility, National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, Smart Grid Laboratory, Energy Storage Test Bed and the Decision Theatre.
- 4,000 sensors throughout the building providing high resolution data about environmental, mechanical and electrical performance
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