On the evening of Wednesday 19th April 2023, a group of members of the Constructing Excellence Oxford Club were kindly invited by McLaughlin & Harvey and McBains to a tour of their projects currently on site at Culham Science Centre on behalf of their client's - the UK Atomic Energy Authority. 

The event started with a brief overview of the two projects - UKAEA Offices and Oxfordshire Advanced Skills (OAS) Phase 3 Extension - in the McLaughlin & Harvey site offices. We were pleased to hear from our expert hosts, who talked us through the design of the buildings and the challenges they have experienced from inception of the projects through to their current progress on site.

• Anna Kealey, Project Architect for UKAEA Offices - McBains,
• Fatos Lleshi, Senior Project Manager - McLaughlin & Harvey,
• Steve Cliffe - Client Project Manager for UKAEA Offices,
• Chris Sheering - Client Project Manager for OAS Phase 3. 

The group made their way around both sites, taking in the great views on a surprisingly bright and dry spring evening. The ambition and scale of the redevelopment of Culham Science Centre is certainly impressive: from former RAF airbase to a modern day R+D facility, at the forefront of the fusion energy research. We learned of the authorities need to modernise their built estate, to attract the right talent into the many highly skilled roles undertaken on site. The great work that Oxfordshire Advance Skills are doing to give the next generation of school leavers the necessary skills to work in high tech engineering roles. 

We finished our tour on the roof terrace of OAS Phase 3 Extension, keeping warm in the remaining light of the setting sun, less than 500m from the Joint European Torus (JET) - the hottest known place in the solar system. We thanked our generous hosts, look forward to following the progress with works on site, and hope that we may be invited back in the future.