Construction collaboration MedicomZes-Kuijpers has completed a new headquarters for SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research on Leiden Bio Science Park.
After completion of the design by Ector Hoogstad Architecten, the first pile was driven into the ground in October 2019, after which more than twenty intensive months of construction followed. What was special about the building included complex cleanrooms (ISO Class 6 and 7) and cryolabs, placed on a massive low-vibration floor slab of 5000 cubic metres of concrete with 800 tons of reinforcement, and far away from disturbing electrical radiation sources.
The building, with a total area of approximately 9,000 sqm, also consists of workshops, offices and meeting and meeting areas.
"They are situated around a spacious atrium," said project manager housing for SRON, Frank Van Rijn. "As a result, meeting each other and exchanging ideas, the creative process that is very important to SRON, is vastly improved compared to the old building in Utrecht."
After furnishing and relocation, the building will be fully operational in September 2021. The move of SRON's head office from Utrecht to South Holland goes hand in hand with a broader partnership between SRON, Leiden University, TU Delft and various other knowledge partners, focusing on SRON's most important research programmes: astrophysics, exoplanet research, Earth-oriented research and technology development.
