Research Institutes

A research institute for five scientists, added to an existing manor house without taking it over.

The institute from above: the original brick building retained, the new glazed structure added on top

Year: 2022
Type: Studio project
Role: Individual project
Scope: Five scientists, existing house retained

Site: Woolsthorpe Manor House, Grantham, Lincolnshire
Tools: AutoCAD · SketchUp · Enscape · Photoshop · Lightroom · Illustrator
Status: University project, unbuilt · BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design, Nottingham Trent University
Shows: Working with an existing building, structural thinking, exploded axonometric, physical model, laboratory planning
Credits: All photographs, drawings and renders by Wentao Zhang unless noted.

I designed a closed research institute for five scientists who live and work in isolation for two years, inside the grounds of an existing manor house. The original building stays; a new structure is added to it. The scheme has an experimental research area and a living area, planned over ground, middle and upper levels, and is explained through an exploded axonometric of 11 labelled components, laboratory visuals and a physical structural model.

Background

The house

Woolsthorpe Manor, near Colsterworth outside Grantham, is the farmhouse where Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642. The Newton family bought it in 1623; most of the present T-shaped house, built from Ancaster limestone, dates from around then, with early 18th-century alterations. Newton returned here during the plague years of 1665–67 and developed his theories of gravity and the refraction of light. The Royal Society bought the house in 1942 and gave it to the National Trust, and it was listed Grade I in 1952. A research institute in this setting asks how new laboratories can sit beside a house that is itself a place of scientific discovery.

Sources

Material palette

What it feels like.

Details cropped from the project’s own visuals and model photographs by Wentao Zhang.

**Brick and clay tile**The retained building: warm brick walls and a tiled roof

**Painted steel**The exposed metal structure, set against the retained brick

**Stair and laboratory fittings**Grey stair treads and bench units inside the laboratory

**Translucent panel and timber**Upper volume of the structural model

**Foam ground**Dark foam used for the base of the structural model

**Timber truss**The new roof structure, left exposed over the roof terrace

Materials and specification

What it is made of.

Read from the key to the exploded axonometric.

Element	Material	Note
Roof	Concrete roof with solar panels over a wooden roof construction	Retained part of the original roof kept beneath the new one
Structure	Metal load-bearing structures and a cement construction frame	Carries the new levels and the roof terrace
Existing building	Original brick facade retained	Forms the ground-floor walls
Ground floor	PVC flooring	Experimental operating table, sample-production instruments, storage and toilets
Middle level	Concrete wall around the CT room	CT scanning instrument room

01 The Proposal

A closed institute, built for five scientists who will maintain an isolated research life in this place for two years. The original brick building is kept as the base; a new glazed structure with a timber truss roof sits over it, and a roof terrace gives the scientists outdoor space.

Exploded axonometric

Eleven components, one building.

The building pulled apart so every layer can be read: the new roof and its truss, the metal structure and cement frame, the retained original facade and roof, and the three working levels. Numbers match the drawing’s key.

Concrete roof and solar panels
Wooden roof construction
Metal load-bearing structures
Second floor: two laboratory tables, desktop instrument console
Original building facade
Ground floor, PVC flooring: experimental operating table, sample-production laboratory instruments, storage room, toilets
Retained part of the roof of the original building
Cement construction frame
Roof terrace
First floor (middle level): CT scanning instrument room
Concrete wall in the CT room

02 Laboratory Interiors

The laboratories sit inside the new frame, under rooflights, with the retained brick as a wall finish. The metal load-bearing structure is left visible, so the building and the equipment are read together.

Laboratory with experimental operating table and sample-production instruments, looking up to the stair

Laboratory with fume cabinets beside the stair, under the arched steel structure

03 Structural Model

A physical model tests how the new structure stands on the retained building: the brick base, the translucent upper volume and the floors that carry it.

Physical structural model, three-quarter view

Floor build-up with the translucent wall above

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