082 EDUCATION
INSPIRED ADJACENCIES are the dominant trend in new higher education buildings: even the sometimes seemingly counterintuitive placement of facilities that wouldn’t normally be situated anywhere near each other has proved a winning strategy for innovation and engagement. But the real alchemy happens only when these facilities are woven together in a flexible and sociable design and in a way that resonates with the prevailing – or aspirational – culture, and with the right levels of consideration paid to those who will be sharing that space.
Grafton Architects’ Stirling Prize winning project Kingston Townhouse is a case in point. A remarkable building with a most unusual combination of facilities, it features a highly visible dance and performance ‘courtyard’, plus rehearsal spaces around which are wrapped library services, a wide range of social and study spaces, plus a community café that is genuinely open to its residential and business neighbours. While it may seem brave – or even foolhardy – to place library facilities next to the 85/65dB noise levels of dance studios, never mind an auditorium, the client was fully on board with the idea that generous acoustic paneling (wood wool) in walls and soffits would dampen general noise, and high quality acoustic isolation would resolve all other issues.
In practice, how has this unlikely pairing worked? Kingston’s director of estates, Sean Woulfe, says: ‘Te first thing it gave us is just visibility. It’s a real beacon, especially lit up at night.’ Tis has attracted new and more frequent library visitors, he says: ‘Now we have engineering students going into that library, going to wander into the courtyard and see dancers and the studio theatre on the ground floor. Tat was an important aspect.’ Tough there are blinds that can be drawn down if dancers want to rehearse in private, they’re rarely used says Woulfe: ‘Tey’re quite happy to be seen. People are just exposed to dance, to performance. And we were keen that students just come across contemporary art, contemporary dance, like it’s not a big thing.’ Having that dynamic, physical practice going on at the centre of a library building has done wonders also for student recruitment. Says Woulfe: ‘We had an open day on a recent Saturday, and the Townhouse was just buzzing. Our colleagues in recruitment tell us that Townhouse is a huge influence because people have heard about it, number one, and when they see it, it just has a big impact on parents and prospective students.’ Multi-disciplinary, educational mash-ups are occurring with increasing regularity all over the world, especially where there are topical similarities and overlaps – such as the University of Arizona’s enormous new Health Services Innovation Building by CO Architects, which unites the colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and clinical skills, but also where adjacencies are less obvious. For example in Feilden Clegg Bradley (FCB)’s recently opened Central Quad at TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus, ten different
schools from the College of Sciences and Health, the College of Engineering and Built Environment and the College of Arts and Tourism, are dispersed in a porous, sociable arrangement across a contemporary interpretation of the classic university quadrangle.
Luring the student and teaching community into more regular physical engagement and cross-fertilisation on the campus is one of the drivers for another FCB project – the Catalyst Building, at the University of Staffordshire. It was designed to
support the client’s desire for a ‘sticky campus’, according to FCB partner Andy Teobald: ‘Here, the whole ground floor is completely open plan. It’s called a catalyst because that’s what they’re trying to do – to bring people in from off campus.’ Te purpose of many of these buildings – and a key driver in their design – is also to articulate a particular culture and ambition for the clients. Tat was certainly the case for York St John’s University, in commissioning Tate & Co (formerly Tate Harmer) to design a supremely sociable, but also sustainable
This image The roof beams were CNC machined off site, assembled and dropped into the steel primary grid structure
Right The design evokes the mid-century heyday of both motor and aeronautical engineering
ALL IMAGES: HUFTON+CROW
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