Research & Education – PLP Architecture

The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

The Francis Crick Institute is an extraordinary example of collaborative work in science today. A consortium of six of the UK’s largest organisations for biomedical research, the Institute brings together multidisciplinary groups of researchers including biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, computer scientists and mathematicians to develop ground-breaking research for the improvement of human health. To house this centre, we devised a building that operates both as a complex laboratory as well as a place for collaboration and exchange.

Cleveland Clinic, London, UK

Former office building, 33 Grosvenor Place in London, has been transformed into healthcare provider Cleveland Clinic’s first European hospital.

WLA Artificial Intelligence Lab, Shanghai, China

In a gesture of establishing a more open and inclusive international cooperation in science and technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology and the World Laureates Forum have developed a new district in Shanghai as a global community for research and innovation. Located on the south side of Dishui Lake in the Lingang New Area of Shanghai, the district will house institutions and research organisations specialising in formal and natural science. PLP Architecture was commissioned to programme and design an artificial intelligence laboratory situated in the heart of this community.

Yandex Headquarters, Moscow, Russia

PLP Architecture is designing an innovative new smart headquarters for Yandex, the global technology leader, in the Gagarinsky District of Moscow. The project sits on a prominent site near the Moskva River, a short distance from the some of the city’s leading research institutions and the company’s first office. When complete, the 170,000m2 campus will enable staff to have a healthy and sustainable place for seamless work and recreation, a space for inspiration and fun that will integrate technology with materiality to inspire new ideas and ways of working.

Lijia Smart Park – Geek Commumity, Chongqing, China

The Geek Community Project is a dynamic new intelligent district being developed across an extensive site in Chongqing, China. Within it, our competition entry for the South District has been conceived to house a range of research and development spaces within a smart and collaborative environment formulated around ideas of wellbeing and encounter – between people, between nature and culture, and between the past and the present.

Imperial College London Thinkspace Translation & Innovation Hub, London, UK

PLP Architecture has designed two key buildings in Imperial College’s new White City Campus in West London: Thinkspace, an office and technology start-up hub that opened in 2017, and Eighty-Eight Wood Lane, a 34-storey residential tower. The tower provides accommodation for lecturers, researchers, and trainee doctors along with their families – all helping the college to attract and retain talented staff. The project reinforces the college’s vision to create a new masterplan integrating academic uses with office, residential and retail buildings. The tower and the surrounding urban quarter form an ecosystem of academic and private entrepreneurship that defines a new focal point for science and technology companies in London.

Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK

Originally created in the 1960s as a suburban office park, Alderley Park has through the years lost some of its coherence and focus and a repositioning exercise is now necessary to ensure market competitiveness. The rejuvenated Alderley Park campus will be home to a range of companies that focus on research and development in technology and life-sciences.

Krea University, Sri City, India

PLP Architecture has been selected to master plan and design a bold new education campus in India. Krea University is one of India’s new private universities focused on liberal arts and sciences and endeavours to reimagine learning to meet the unique challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Krea’s paradigm of Interwoven Learning will be a model for the future of teaching and learning, empowering students with the necessary skills to better take on the world of tomorrow. It has been conceived by some of the best academic minds in the world and is supported by visionary institution builders from across the corporate world.

New Kingdom Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Our design for the New Kingdom Hospital is inspired by the Bimaristan, the Middle East care-giving clinic and ancestor of the modern hospital. Like the Bimaristan, our design provides a close connection between the patient and nature, that relationship helping the patient’s recuperation.

Dramatic Needs Piet Patsa Arts Centre, Republic of South Africa

Working with the UK charity Dramatic Need, PLP Architecture has designed a new community arts centre in Viljoenskroon, south of Johannesburg, in South Africa. The charity, which recognises the value of the arts to education and humanitarianism, invites international and local artists to volunteer their professional skills and expertise to help make a difference to the lives of children in some of the most impoverished and isolated parts of of the country.