224 Bath Rd
Slough
This 3750m2 three storey structure was developed speculatively by Slough Estates and designed to be customized by tenants for either industrial, commercial or biotech use thereby maximizing the potential letting market.
Aptly named the Flex Building it was designed for versatility. It takes the conventional industrial - building format of a large portal framed shed with three storey offices and reception area at the front, all under one continuous roof.
As it was difficult to predict the proportion of office space to single storey warehouse/production a tenant might require the building, constructed by Slough Estates ' in house construction department, had the flexibility to add one or two upper floors within the rear portal framed shed. The building was clad in an innovative cladding system based on a grid of 6 x 2.7 m " knockout" panels that can be removed to accommodate windows, louvers or other types of cladding, and the conversion just as easily reversed.
The building was subsequently occupied by Lonza Pharmaceuticals who exploited the building's flexibility to the full by creating an atrium behind the office area, locating laboratories on the ground and second floor with the intermediate level housing services, with warehousing to the rear