SEGRO Innovation Centre

SEGRO is a property investment and development company with a portfolio of land and commercial property that stretches across Europe, valued at £9.5bn in 2018. It started life in 1920 when the founding owners purchased a large site on the Bath Road in Slough which has grown to become the largest trading estate in single ownership in Europe. The Estate now has 700,000m² of commercial property accommodating over 500 companies.

When a site in the middle of the Trading Estate was becoming available for redevelopment SEGRO saw this as an opportunity to create a new focus for the Estate – a building where small start-ups could co-locate with flexible lease agreements and flexible managed space, but also a place for other businesses on the Estate to use for meetings and events, or just drop in for coffee or a snack.

The scheme provides a mix of lettable space – flexible small units at 18m² which can be connected together to offer expansion, and a mix of larger units ranging from 50m² to 200m² – a function room, presentation space, a mix of meeting spaces, small kitchens, and touch-down spaces providing open-plan desk space.

The form of the building, with its ‘boomerang’ shaped plan, offers protection from traffic noise for the south-east facing garden and upper floor terraces, and also offers opportunities to develop an exciting and dynamic building envelope facing an important intersection of two major roads on the Trading Estate.