Designing a Research Centre

Thornton Research Centre (TRC) is a major research site for Shell, housed at
the base of the Wirral Peninsula about 20 miles south west of Liverpool. During
1993 it was decided that the existing rather extensive mixture of buildings should
be refurbished, some pulled down, with new more coherent buildings to replace
them being needed. This was to be part of a general plan to rejuvenate research
activities in preparation for the 21st Century and the many emerging
technological developments. It was decided that the planning of the whole new
site and the design of the new research laboratories should benefit from
environmental psychology input. I was approached before any architects were
appointed, but after preliminary planning had taken place, to carry out a series
of studies that would provide the strategic basis for the planning and design.
The projects had to be completed over a period of a few months in a context
that I knew, from previous experience, would change during our involvement.
In fact one set of architects came and went during the project and a research
centre in the South of England, at Sittingbourne, was brought into the plan and
had to be included in the study.