34
building for education special report
Client: University of East Anglia/ UEA Adapt Low Carbon Group Architect: Architype Main contractor: Morgan Sindall Structural engineer and M&E consultant: BDP Life cycle cost analysis: BSRIA Landscape architect: Churchman Landscape Architects Glazing and curtain walling: Protec / Kingston Joinery Passivhaus certifier: BRE Timber frame supplier: Cygnum Recycled newspaper insulation supplier: Warmcel Glulam supplier: Kaufmann Larch supports supplier: Inwood Insulated Floors: Isoquick insulation Thatch: Stephen Letch Fire Consultant: Fire Ingenuity Client side: Patrick Watson, 3PM Client side QS: Keith Sharpe, Capita Planning authority: Norwich City Council
©DennisGilbert/VIEW
come across in a building. “It just used hugely less carbon than anything else we found,
indeed straw absorbs it.” Architype joined a bid team led by contractor Morgan
Sindall, whose design manager Stuart Thomson happened to use the same pub as Steve Letch, a leading figure in the East Anglian Master Thatchers Association. “One idea bandied around was that it would be interesting
to extend the normal thatching season and make thatch in barns, then put it into wooden cassettes that could be craned into position,” Humphries says. “Steve thought this a bit strange, but liked the idea as in
winter thatchers normally have to find other work.” The only conventional thatch in the building is on the roof,
where light wells rise and these were clad in situ. An enormous quantity of thatch was used by the industry’s
normal standards. It is woven some 300mm thick and covers 1,332 square
metres of walls and 364 square metres on the roof. The effect of such a structure near to famous modernist ones by eminent architects like Denys Lasdun and Norman
BUILDING PROJECTS
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk
©DennisGilbert/VIEW
Foster is to “create a building that shares those characteristics but is softened by the thatch with the use of alternate thatch panels and glazing on the walls so that when viewed from an adjacent park through trees it dematerialises the building a bit”, says Humphries. Although the site had been a storage yard, it is surrounded
by sensitive areas to which the Enterprise Centre had to relate. To its south is Earlham Park, a conservation area, to the
west a dense bank of trees and a memorial garden next to the Grade 1 listed estate Earlham Hall, to the east the main university access road. “We wanted it to relate in a low-key way to the memorial
garden but to have a real presence from the university drive,” Humphries says. The building sits on a concrete slab and is built on a timber
frame, locally sourced from Thetford Forest. “There is not much structural timber in East Anglia but
there is Corsican Pine,” says Humphries. “That is usually thought not to be good for structural use,
but that is a bit of a myth, though it took a lot of hard work to persuade various parties involved of this.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104