PROJECT REPORT: EDUCATION & RESEARCH FACILITIES


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laboratories’ – providing the necessary clearance for generating lightning for experiments. Following Mecanoo’s appointment, the decision was taken to build on this site and demolish the existing material science facility. This was replaced by the Upper Brook Street Building, with some outdated student residences making way for MEC Hall.


Briefing & scenarios As is the nature of such complex, multi-faceted schemes, the brief evolved during its development, although being a Design & Build, the design had to be frozen at a given point. While Mecanoo handed over the design to BDP in 2016, its team have maintained “a very strong contact with the project,” and contributed to some of the changes that have been made since then.


The key aim for MEC Hall was to enable four departments to retain their strong individual identities, but also blend and overlap to facilitate collaboration. The designers had to resolve a host of institutional desires, so the approach taken “wasn’t forcing the departments to merge, it was enabling it,” There were roughly 50 different research facilities to consult, and “people with a clear vision of what the university should be,” says Diesfeldt,


ADF MARCH 2020


including technical staff tasked with mounting experiments and the logistics of craning in heavy items.


The architects spoke to over 200 individuals during the briefing process; Otto says the most interesting aspect was “meeting a lot of people who don’t see each other on a day to day basis, and through identifying what their future could entail, you notice that they start talking to each other.” He says they also “started understanding how they could benefit from smaller spaces with less equipment, if it’s the right equipment.”


The architects tested multiple ‘high-level’ scenarios with the client postulating where the departments could fit within potential new volumes. “It became very evident that they felt very good about trying to get the bulk of researchers and the undergraduates placed as close as possible together,” says Diesfeldt. The designers took the client to see other facilities, such as Delft University’s architecture faculty, which has a centrally located model-making workshop. This proved something of an inspiration for MEC Hall.


Form


According to Diesfeldt, Mecanoo was selected because the client was looking for an architect “capable of translating the


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MECH HALL The 59,000 m2


Mech Hall building forms the focus of


the entire campus, sitting in a dense site to the south of the city centre, and combining four departments of the university


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