At Inventa, we worked closely with Mission Street, Buro Four, Elliot Wood, Hilson Moran, Abakus, Equation and Barton Willmore to transform an uninspiring and redundant retail shed into exciting new laboratory and office spaces to support the life science market in Oxford.
Work started on site in July 2022 with main contractor Willmot Dixon and completed in late 2023.
We reused and extend the existing structure, upgraded the building fabric, improved the landscaping and installed a cycle centre to create a more sustainable building for market leading life-science companies.
“Inventa was praised by judges for ‘pushing the envelope in terms of what types of building we should be looking at for retrofit’. A deserving winner of the Adaptive reuse into office category.”
Architects Journal, September 2025
“The design’s striking simplicity, especially the flowing atrium spaces, creates a bright, collaborative environment that excels in functionality while enhancing user wellbeing. Judges praised Inventa as a carefully executed and groundbreaking example, pioneering innovative approaches in a typology few projects have yet dared to explore.”
AJ Retrofit and Resue Awards Judges 2025
A newly landscaped car park with a cycle and pedestrian route and generous soft landscaping scheme creates a revitalised approach to what was an uninspiring experience. At the rear of the building, what was once a large concrete car park and turning space for lorries is now a gently landscaped space that opens out onto parkland beyond and doubles as an area for flood risk mitigation.
A service bay for deliveries and laboratory support is located at the rear of the building.
Before
After
Before
After
