This competition winning design by Architects Pascal & Watson, was constructed on ex–industrial land beside the river Tees as part of the new Stockton Campus for the University of Durham. Furness Partnership assisted Pascal and Watson during the early design and were employed by the Austin Co. of UK, who provided multi discipline detail design and construction support to completion of the project.

The building is steel framed and supported on piled foundations. The design comprises three laboratory wings to the rear, each served by its own high level plant room block on the riverside elevation, giving the building its striking looks.