The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is a world class, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the research and demonstration of innovative manufacturing processes. A government funded catapult scheme with the aim of bring manufacturing into UK by bridging the gap between academia and industry, it represents one of the largest public sector investments in UK manufacturing.
The project transformed the historic Ansty Airfield into an environment for global manufacturing companies to develop and operate advanced manufacturing equipment. As an advanced research and development centre, the MTC’s equipment and engineers are used by a range of companies, from small firms to industry-leading global manufacturers. The spaces are designed to cover Research and Development, Training, Advanced Manufacturing Management and Factory Design.
Our team have built an effective and proven partnership with MTC which has seen us work with the facility since 2008, enabling them to provide the latest bespoke manufacturing system solutions for their clients. The project design needed to deliver flexibility, catering for an unknown future of cutting-edge research and technology. We helped to develop, design and detail both commercial spaces and a primary structure that could incorporate all the facilities required for such a wide range of needs, including large machine tools, electronics fabrication units, a Cartesian Deployment System, clean rooms and Close Control Cells / Close Control List X facilities and additive manufacturing.
We developed a benchmarking strategy that allows the development to adapt to each client’s individual needs. Services and spaces require adaptability to deliver to unknown future fit out requirements, so effective user engagement was essential to creating effective benchmarking.
We produced a dedicated research equipment schedule capturing all service requirements, including size, load, environmental needs, structural and architectural needs, vibration and acoustics and heat creation, to ensure MTC clients can deliver accredited research in stringently controlled conditions. By being able to deliver these services under a single roof, we enabled the MTC to provide the latest bespoke manufacturing system solutions for their clients.
We undertook structural and building services designs for the scheme and provided the civil engineering design for the infrastructure works supporting the development. This included drainage, SuDS, highways, car parking and external works. Our team also provided environmental and geo-environmental services to support the development, including ecology, geotechnical design and ground remediation.
Our building services strategy has future flexibility embedded in the design and has proven extremely successful. From its new base, the MTC has grown in membership, hitting many of its targets years in advance of initial projections. To keep up with growing demand for advanced manufacturing solutions, the MTC has expanded to accommodate an Aerospace Research Centre (ARC) and the Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC). Our team supported both of these new developments, producing Revit models for enhancements and alterations to explore the feasibility of proposed structural solutions as well as providing MEP design services.
Client: Manufacturing Technology Centre
Architect: Fairhursts Design Group
