The brief for this building was to create an open, accessible building that could become a hub for the Western part of the campus, in a building which will both allow sciences to grow and to attract more students to study at UEA.
The building also helps to deliver a key part of the strategy for the renewal and improvement of the UEA Estate over the next two decades and beyond, particularly to reduce emissions from a building type which is historically wasteful and inefficient and providing space for the Grade II listed ‘Lasdun Wall’.
It has two main functions; general teaching space at ground level and teaching laboratories on the upper floors. The spaces are linked by an atrium where social learning and creative interaction between disciplines can occur.
The laboratories are a strategic development for the Faculty of Science; having been conceived as a response to the condition, quality and capacity of the existing laboratories within the Lasdun Academic Wall which were considered to be uncompetitive and increasingly unfit for purpose.
The project had a number of closely interlinked objectives including the delivery of a new concept in science laboratory teaching and learning and to foster a spirit of discovery among students; to help the Faculty of Science to leapfrog from its current competitive position to achieve a new, innovative and efficient approach to teaching laboratory-based Science; to deliver a recruitment advantage and to help the Faculty increase its student numbers; to achieve a consolidation of ‘wet’ lab teaching facilities and to modernise laboratory management practice for reasons of efficiency, operational effectiveness and safety management; to co-locate and share facilities based on functional need rather than organisational divisions; to address decant issues associated with a planned refit of the Lasdun Wall.
The western part of the campus previously had little public gathering space; to address this the design combined a new sunken courtyard entrance with the expansion and enhancement of the existing adjacent public space at Julian Study Centre. The site is prominently located as a gateway building for the west entrance to UEA’s campus, linking the University to the Norwich Research Park.
The building has the diagrammatic simplicity found in several of the best buildings on campus (Lasdun Wall, Sainsbury Centre, etc.). The labs are simple and rectangular in plan and are located in a linear arrangement, best utilising the site. Ancillary/support spaces are located between labs and circulation spaces. An atrium is located at the entrance corner to the building and can be used for orientation, circulation, social learning and quiet study.
The primary public access is via the adjacent Julian Study Centre courtyard; this acknowledges that the majority of building users will approach from the east. It also activates this courtyard as an important focal point in the west side of the campus. The existing courtyard has been enlarged, which along with the entrance steps and lower courtyard have created a large public realm that alleviates congestion and enhances the outdoor space. The building has service access from the north, which keeps ‘back of house’ facilities away from the front of the building. It also keeps potentially dangerous loading and unloading of chemicals away from busy pavement and roads.
The building has highly serviced labs (chemistry and biology) on the upper floors; and more lightly serviced labs (environmental sciences and electronics) on the lower floors. The ground floor teaching rooms are recessed to form a colonnade to Chancellor’s Drive. The south-east and south-west corners of the building have strong articulation to complement the confident modelling of Lasdun’s original designs as well as the west elevations of the adjacent Constable Terrace (Mather) and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (Foster).
The steeply sloping site had been excavated previously, generating a level below the Julian Study Centre courtyard to the east. This created the opportunity for a bonus level that provided space for additional internal accommodation as well as the dramatic courtyard entrance.
The building significantly enhances UEA’s STEM offer, providing 3,000 sq m of state-of-the-art teaching laboratories across four storeys including an 890 sq m chemistry and pharmacy super lab capable of accommodating 140 students simultaneously.
The university’s existing labs were scattered across the Lasdun Teaching Wall, the design for the New Science Building addressed this. A key drive was to improve accessibility; all labs have adjustable height benches and fume cupboards.
Maximising transparency to improve visibility within and into the new labs was also crucial to promote cross collaboration and the sharing of facilities and resources. The New Science Building has been organised so that highly serviced labs (chemistry and biology) are located on the upper floors, with lightly serviced labs (environmental sciences and electronics) located on the lower storeys. Locating the heavily serviced labs near the roof maximised the efficiency of services distribution, minimising the space needed for service provision and ducts on each floor.
Labs have been designed around a simple regular grid to permit ease of future reconfiguration and are stacked to promote efficient vertical distribution of services. Ancillary and support spaces are located between labs and circulation and social spaces, to maximise accessibility. Internally, overhead services have been provided, not fixed to the lab benching, to facilitate future reconfiguration. The extensive use of glazing internally maximises visibility, promoting cross-collaboration and allowing the New Science Building to act as a showcase for the departments within.
The labs were designed around a simple grid and have been stacked to allow for ease of vertical services distribution and reconfiguration; ancillary and support labs are located between teaching labs to maximise accessibility; overhead services have been provided in all labs to allow easy reconfiguration; extensive internal glazing has been used to maximise visibility between lab spaces, and to promote cross-collaboration. The labs were designed to all look out into the mature tree canopies of the protected woodland to the North and West and the line of Turkish Hazels to the South, providing an attractive setting for staff and students to work in.
The labs have been provided with independent ventilation systems, providing fresh air, heating, temperature limiting cooling and heat recovery. A fume extract system provided with duty/assist/ stand-by and a dedicated ‘night’ fan vents the storage cupboards at a much lower volume (and energy use). Fume extract systems incorporate variable speed fans (supply and extract) working in conjunction with the VAT controls, to vary supply and extract in response to changing demands.
The atrium provides the focus for a variety of spaces for collaborative, social and personal learning that complement the more formal teaching spaces of the labs and classrooms. These enrich the learning experience by providing students with flexibility and choice of a range of venues for informal learning and study. Internally, seating and touch-down spaces are available along the generous corridors, at the entrance to each of the labs and around the landings of the atrium; providing individual and group study spaces. Each area benefits from a high degree of connectivity and AV provision as well as a variety of seating and workstations to facilitate informal talks and presentations.
These spaces have also been designed for use as a ‘pop-up’ library during revision periods. At the heart of the atrium, an 80 seat ‘elephant step’ auditorium provides a venue for informal lectures and performance as well as social learning space to encourage collaboration and discussion. Externally, seating is provided within the new entrance square connecting the New Science Building with the Julian Study Centre.
FBM Architects worked closely with UEA’s ‘Access All Areas Network’ and in accordance with the ‘UEA Design Guide’, which the network had a major input into developing, in order to deliver a building that exceeded current standards on accessibility. Over 8% of students at UEA have a declared disability, thereby making accessibility a key deliverable for the project.
Accessible design features include a wide access ramp into the entrance courtyard; two accessible lifts with fire evacuation capability and refuge points adjacent to lifts on each floor; power-assisted doors throughout; UEA’s first Changing Places and two wheelchair accessible WC’s per floor; fully accessible labs; include adjustable height fume cupboards and benches and lever taps throughout; colour contrasting sockets and switches; hearing loops and sound reduction features prevent background noise throughout.
Live updates of the BIM model were made available to the client team, assisting their review and approval processes. Laboratory furniture and AV packages were delivered in BIM in a change from standard practice; this allowed for enhanced site coordination and client review. Precise modelling of roof plant helped to minimise plant visibility from street level, avoiding the need for costly screening. The fume cupboard chimney frame was precisely modelled and fabricated off-site, before it was craned into location; this ensured massive Health and Safety and Programme benefits.
Scalable AV systems provide teaching flexibility where multiple content feeds can be displayed within one room simultaneously. Also one content feed can be sent across the entire building, providing huge flexibility in teaching. A large 9 sq m, 1.5mm pitch multi-screen LED display is located in the atrium social learning environment. Students and Academics have the ability to route any video source to any display in the building, from slide-show presentations to live microscope feeds via a Zee-Vee AV distribution system.
The design reduces energy use in a building type that is renowned for high consumption. The predicted emissions from the new building are extremely low at 8.7kg/CO²/sq m, giving it the highest EPC rating of A. The structure is a concrete frame formed from post-tensioned concrete slabs. This provides wide, column-free floor plates and flat soffits, which are essential for heavily-serviced laboratories. This has also resulted in thin slabs and a reduced number of columns, thereby reducing the amount of concrete used. Where possible GGBS cement replacement has been used.
Heating is provided via the university’s district heating network, a low-carbon heat source, and the building includes a 130 sq m PV array on the roof. The main ventilation systems all include heat recovery provision and the lighting is 100% LED with intelligent control systems accessed via a web browser. Ground floor teaching rooms have passive ventilation with visual indicators for indoor air quality, as well as MVHR ventilation. The laboratories on the upper floors have independent ventilation systems, providing fresh air, heating, temperature limiting cooling and heat recovery.
Additional sustainability features are exposed thermal mass from the concrete frame utilised throughout to reduce the rate of temperature change in the space and provide ‘peak lopping’. This also means that the embodied CO² of suspended ceilings has been reduced.
All concrete roof parapets are thermally broken and fume cupboards have a reduced face velocity of 0.35m/s instead of the more usual 0.5m/s. WC integrated panel systems are made from a tough durable recycled plastic panel, both using a recycled material and increasing the durability of WC panels, reducing the embodied carbon and increasing the life cycle of this material. Gabion retaining walls were filled using locally sourced flint.