Met office to build supercomputer home

The Met office has announced plans to build a £20M home for the final part of its new supercomputer which help with more accurate weather predictions.

Located at Exeter Science Park, the computer will be housed in a steel-framed structure designed by architects Stride Treglown along with structural engineer WSP. Willmott Dixon has been appointed as the project’s main contractor while the appointment of a steelwork contractor is imminent.

Dave Underwood, Met Office Deputy Director for the High Performance Computing Programme, said: “High performance computing is an essential component of everything the Met Office does and the first phase of the new supercomputer is already operational, five weeks ahead of schedule.

“It’s going to be exciting to see this new facility at the Science Park becoming a reality. It brings the vision of a world-leading centre of environmental science prediction in the south-west and improved UK resilience to high impact weather another step closer.”

Labelled a “world class asset” by Exeter City Council Chief Executive Karime Hassan, Willmott Dixon will build the facility over the next 14 months and it is scheduled to be fully operational in 2017

Willmott Dixon Managing Director in the South West Neal Stephens said: “This will be another important asset to our country’s technology sector, providing us with one of Europe’s biggest supercomputers inside an iconic building that we will create. We are very proud to be playing such an important part in this project; it further compliments our skill-set for building science facilities that make us a world leader in this sector.”