CABI Headquarters

CABI is an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization that applies scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Millions of the world’s most vulnerable people face invasive weeds, insects, plant diseases and animals and these disproportionately affect vulnerable communities in poor rural areas, especially in developing countries which depend on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods. Scott Brownrigg won the design competition to create a new Headquarters for CABI, who, for the past 33 years have been located in a school built in the 1960s in Oxfordshire. The old building required a high level of maintenance, and diverted valuable funds into running costs and heating, CABI desperately needed a new, energy-efficient, purpose-built corporate office in Wallingford. Designed during the United Nations ‘Decade on Biodiversity’ from 2011–2020, the project aim was to celebrate life on Earth, to highlight the value of biodiversity to our lives and to call for a renewed effort to safeguard the variety of life. Our goal was to create a new headquarters which embodied the CABI mission statement, and craft a low energy design, that offers a two-storey office space, successfully integrating an experimental bio-diverse landscape with a new collaborative flexible working environment. The project has excelled in its sense of place, responding to its situation in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The building acknowledges its surroundings with a living roof, which attracts insects and birds and enhances biodiversity. At the heart of this project is CABI’s commitment to encouraging biodiversity and protecting the environment. The design is highly energy efficient with detailed strategies for materials, orientation and structures. The design includes a careful selection of materials for the building fabric, which will reduce the energy consumption, to embrace the aim of low carbon use in operation. Designing with passive sustainability as a priority, the building is positioned to minimise solar gains by orientating it East-West, and will provide shade in the summer and allow sunlight in the winter. Completing in 2020 means that the HQ foreshadowed the shift in priorities for office space users who, due to Covid-19, have placed increased importance on clean air. Natural ventilation was clearly a key design factor in the brief and, adopting an innovative approach to the brief, it was achieved by a perforated façade. This permits cool air into the building throughout day and night. It then rises up and is collected at the top. Heat recovery ventilation is used in the winter to pre-warm fresh air, which is then pumped into the floors. Dr Trevor Nicholls, Former CABI CEO, said of the completed building: “We now have an office that we can truly be proud of which is fitting for an international organisation, visited by guests and staff from around the world. It is truly in keeping with our mission and values to protect the environment and biodiversity whilst also being an impressive local landmark that will put us on the map more visibly in the community.”.