Ashcroft International Business School

Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Chelmsford, 2003

 

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Curved wall of the auditorium 

Edmund Sumner (website)     Download Original

  • Curved wall of the auditorium    
  • South facade of business school    
  • Business school facade    
  • The curved wall of the auditorium marks the entrance to the business school, left, and Queen    
  • Northerly riverside view, with the lowest two business school floors stepped forward, tying into the entrance volume    
  • Auditorium over entrance with lower level bridge    
  • The ground floor cladding of the Queen    
  • Queen    
  • Ground floor plan    
  • First floor plan    
  • Second floor plan    
  • Third floor plan    
  • Fourth floor plan    
  • Section A-A    
  • Section B-B    
  • Campus masterplan – the new building adjacent to the traffic island    
  • Aerial axonometric    
  • Computer model showing volumes of southerly spaces and corridors, marked by dropped ceilings for services. The top of the double wall provides balustrading at terrace level    
  • Wall details    
  • Wall and roof terrace details    

Five-storey teaching block, with glazed bio-climatic double wall, as part of the ongoing masterplan for Anglia Ruskin University

The Ashcroft business school has a totally glazed, bio-climatic southerly double-layer facade and stepped-plan. The largely-glazed wall to the north take advantage of the best views and is set between bookends of staircases and risers clad in grey terracotta rainscreen.

The ground floor is mainly offices, the first and second are teaching spaces, the third is for staff and the top floor is open-plan with a roof terrace, for large formal meetings or business events.

The building is linked to the Queen’s Building (designed by ECD) by a glazed box providing an entrance area for both buildings. The entrance area is set beneath the 150-seat auditorium, with the rake of the floor soffit rising overhead.

Bridges link the Ashcroft’s teaching-level corridors (floors one and two) through the entrance area to the first floor of the Queen’s building and into the Sawyer’s building beyond. From this elevated route, within the entrance, other bridges branch off to the front and back levels of the raked auditorium.

Data

  • Begun: Nov 2001
  • Completed: 2003
  • Floor area: 4,384m2
  • Sector: Education
  • Total cost: £6.4M
  • Tender date: Mar 2001
  • Procurement: Amended JCT98 with Contractor's Design
  • Address: Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ, United Kingdom

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