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acoustically sensitive rooms, and the constraints on distribution and servicing with no ground floor void and partial ceiling voids, were successfully overcome. LICA required a strong team working ethic and this was one of the strengths of the project. The development process included feasibility stage workshops, end- user meetings, design presentations, client sign-off of stages, formal response to client comments, and close liaison with Lancaster University throughout design, construction and post-construction.
THE INTERIOR
ID:SR, Sheppard Robson’s specialist interior design team was commissioned to design the interiors for LICA, with the aim to meet the needs of academics and students, and to show the client how they could best ‘live’ in their environment. This approach has worked, as Andrew Quick, Director, LICA comments: “Most important of all, people like coming in and using the building – and is this not the most important thing – how we use and work and live in a building such as this.” The ground floor comprises a range of flexible performance and workshop spaces. These spaces, as well as seminar rooms, have the added benefit of being bookable through the University’s central booking facility.
Visitors enter the building through the main foyer which is a combination of reception, events and informal meeting area. This large, flexible space has a lighting rig, loose furniture and a neutral palette that allows it to be reconfigured for various events such as art installations and performances. Gallery walls around the foyer are intended to be ‘exploited’ – these can be drawn on, fixed to, painted over – whatever takes the imagination of those around. They also serve to protect the timber at low level and can be repainted for exhibitions. For the building’s official opening festival in March 2011, the Foyer featured a photographic exhibition and a Mexican inspired banner-making session. To the right of the reception area is the Imagination Lab. As its name suggests this is a creative space for workshops and design sessions. Maximum flexibility is
achieved by the use of folding partitions and loose furniture. Interactive boards facilitate workshops and large chalk boards are
incorporated for sketching on walls. Floor boxes in the Imagination Lab and throughout the building give access to power and data points allowing students to touch down and access IT wherever it most suits them.
The Event Space is approximately 40m
x 15m at its largest and can play host to anything from formal lectures or conferences to dance and multi-media. It can be sub-divided into three separate spaces using full length concertina walls allowing different activities and groups to be accommodated. To support this Hoare Lea’s design included dimmable main lighting; services to an articulated stage lighting rig in each of the spaces; displacement ventilation, which has a variable flow linked to occupancy; and underfloor heating in the sprung timber floor. The remote control room is hooked up to the Event Space, allowing sessions to be recorded and event lighting changed.
An exciting feature of the Event Space is the full height hangar door which opens up onto the Plaza – a semi outdoor stage surrounded with a grassed slope that creates a natural performance arena. The project has been a great success.
“At Lancaster University we are passionate about pioneering high quality sustainable design and construction. LICA provides a superb venue for creativity and the arts and we are very proud of the facilities”, says Swindlehurst. “The achievement of BREEAM Outstanding combined with such a popular interior and ‘feel’ to the spaces means LICA stands out as unique in the higher education sector.”
www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/lica/
PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4 13
Photos: Hufton & Crow
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