Global Oral Health Innovation Centre
Global Oral Health Innovation Centre is a 8,4000 square metre flagship research and development facility for Haleon, bringing laboratories, workplaces and specialist support spaces together within a flexible, high-performance building.
Elliott Wood developed the structural and civil engineering strategy in response to the client’s operational priorities: protecting the performance of vibration-sensitive laboratories, allowing research spaces to adapt over time and establishing a practical route through complex ground, water and site constraints.
The development comprises a four-storey innovation building containing laboratories, offices, amenity spaces, an auditorium, warehouse and loading facilities, alongside a separate multi-storey car park with landscaped amenity space at roof level. By integrating engineering, construction sequencing and procurement considerations from the outset, the design provides Haleon with a technically robust facility that can respond to changing research requirements while controlling cost, carbon and delivery risk.
- Architect
- Sheppard Robson
- Client
- Haleon
- Location
- Weybridge, UK
Impact
Laboratories, workplaces and specialist support spaces are brought together within a flexible, high-performance building designed to respond to Haleon’s changing research requirements.
The laboratory floors were designed to provide a stable environment for most research activities, while more sensitive equipment can be positioned in naturally stiffer areas with local isolation where required.
Approximately nine metres of loose, low-capacity sand underlies the site. A reinforced concrete raft supported by rigid inclusions provided a more efficient alternative to conventional deep piles, reducing material, cost and construction time.
Post-tensioning reduced superstructure weight and concrete volumes, lowering embodied carbon while also reducing loads transferred into the foundations — particularly valuable given the challenging ground conditions.
Context
The site occupies a slender plot within The Heights Business Park in Weybridge, between the existing Sony and Procter & Gamble buildings. It rises significantly from west to east and is constrained by mature trees, a pond, neighbouring structures and a high, variable groundwater table.
The completed building uses this change in level to integrate the multi-storey car park into the hillside, with a landscaped wildflower garden above. The main building steps back across its east and west elevations to create terraces overlooking the surrounding landscape and the principal civic spaces at either end.
Internally, the circulation cores are positioned towards the perimeter, allowing laboratories, offices and collaborative spaces to flow around a central atrium. At ground level, a broad auditorium stair creates a focal point for meetings and informal interaction, while the upper-level amenity spaces connect directly to the landscaped roof garden.
Our Approach
Designing for changing research requirements
Laboratory buildings must accommodate specialist equipment without becoming too rigid to respond to future scientific needs. We worked closely with Haleon, the design team and vibration specialists to understand the performance requirements of the current equipment inventory, rather than applying an unnecessarily onerous standard across every space.
The laboratory floors are designed to achieve VC-A vibration performance throughout, providing a stable environment for most of Haleon’s research activities. More sensitive equipment can be positioned within naturally stiffer areas close to columns, supported by local isolation measures where required.
A regular 7.2-metre structural grid and flat-slab construction create open, adaptable floorplates, while future laboratory expansion zones have been designed to the same vibration standard. This gives Haleon the ability to reconfigure and enlarge its research spaces without substantial structural intervention.
Developing a viable foundation strategy
Initial ground investigations indicated approximately nine metres of loose, low-capacity sand, together with a high and variable groundwater table. A conventional piled solution would have required piles to pass through the weaker strata before reaching competent ground, increasing material use, cost and construction time.
The findings suggested that a shallow raft foundation supported by ground improvement using Controlled Modulus Columns (CMCs) would be required. However, further investigations using Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) identified stronger soils at shallower depths than anticipated. Combined with the reduced structural weight achieved through post-tensioned slabs, this enabled us to eliminate the need for ground improvement altogether.
The final solution uses a reinforced concrete raft with varying thicknesses, providing additional capacity beneath the heavily loaded concrete cores and laboratory areas. Together with the lighter post-tensioned slabs, this reduced concrete volumes and embodied carbon while delivering a more efficient foundation strategy.
Protecting value through coordination and buildability
The project followed an earlier development proposal for which enabling works had already begun. Rather than treating these works as abortive, we reviewed how the existing piling platforms, sheet piles, hoarding and hardstanding could support the revised scheme.
The car park was positioned within the existing site infrastructure and tree constraints, while the previous piling platforms could be used to install the new retaining walls and ground improvement. This approach sought to retain value already invested in the site, reduce additional temporary works and limit unnecessary material use.
We also developed the structural sequence around the proposed split between enabling and main works packages. Early identification of interfaces—including builders’ work openings, roof plant, façade movements and dewatering requirements—helped expose risks before construction, when they could still be managed without disruptive or expensive remedial work.
Construction
The most significant construction challenge is the car park, which is partially embedded within the eastern embankment. Temporary sheet piles allow the excavation to be formed while protecting the retained ground and adjacent trees. Once the permanent reinforced-concrete retaining walls and floor slabs are complete, the temporary sheet piles can largely be extracted for reuse.
Groundwater is expected to enter the excavation through the permeable sand and beneath the sheet-piled walls. We therefore identified dewatering as a key project and programme risk, requiring early contractor engagement, on-site testing and appropriate abstraction, discharge and recharge licences.
The construction sequence allows the main innovation building to progress while the deeper car park excavation is undertaken. This helps make productive use of the programme and reduces the extent to which one part of the development delays another.
Along the western pond edge, conventional foundations could have damaged protected tree roots. We developed a lightweight timber walkway supported on adjustable screw piles, which can be repositioned during installation to avoid significant roots. The solution limits ground disturbance, retains flood-storage capacity beneath the structure and allows Haleon to make better use of the landscaped setting.
Throughout the design, we continued to test opportunities to reduce material, cost and embodied carbon. These included refining landscape loading zones, using lower-carbon concrete mixes, exploring voided laboratory slabs and post-tensioned office and car park floors, and limiting waterproof concrete to the areas where its enhanced performance is genuinely required.
Global Oral Health Innovation Centre