The University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus is a world-class centre of research, study, business and leisure. We were asked to design several new spaces that would expand the campus’s facilities and serve as a dramatic focal point for the whole site.
We responded with a trio of new buildings. The striking International House and the Amenities Building have angular, crystal-like forms, with red and brown terracotta tiles arrayed on their surface. The Sir Colin Campbell Building, meanwhile, is a salient contrast – a sleek, sinuous building clad in zinc shingles. It straddles the main campus road, creating a link between the business and academic activities happening on site.
We designed the facades of all three to reduce heating and cooling loads, and chose a highly efficient displacement system to maintain the internal air quality for each. It works through series of heat pumps that extract embodied energy from nearby lakes, keeping the buildings cool in summer and warm in winter. Rain and run-off water are fed back into the lakes.
This environmental focus and inventive design underscore what the Jubilee Campus is all about – innovation, inspiration and progress. And connection, too, within both its research teams and wider setting. This is no ivory tower; it’s a university campus designed to respond to, and eventually change, the world around it.
Winner of the EMPD Award at the 2009 East Midlands Property Awards 2009
Shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award at the British Construction Industry Awards 2009
