Silberrad Student Centre, University of Essex
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The Neobrutalist library extension
Timothy Soar Download Original
At this university campus, comprising a mixture of Brutalist and Modernist buildings, the brief for the extension to the existing library block required a new building that would function as a student centre with learning, media and support services.
One important result of the design is a well-balanced axial relationship between the extended library and the student centre. The three-level student centre features massive concrete floor/ceiling slabs, which cantilever outwards from the second and third floors to create graphic sightlines down the long east and west elevations.
The entry-point at the southern end of the student centre is oversailed by a double-height 15m cantilever supported by an asymmetric arrangement of columns. From this canopied piazza, the material contrasts are clear: the edges of the projecting slabs are inscribed with mid-line indents that immediately signal the care taken with the concrete surfaces; the slabs pass back into the building through a glazed facade with rough-finished Ancaster limestone stone sections.
Inside the reception area, there are bold comings together of in-situ cast concrete walls, the paler mix of the ceiling slabs, and a sculptural staircase in black bronze, which rises up through a three-level atrium lit by a glazed light-slot in the roof.
Data
- Begun: 2011
- Completed: Jul 2015
- Sector: Education
- Total cost: £17.3M
- Procurement: Design & Build
- Address: University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom
Tags 
Atrium, Bay window, Brise soleil, Brutalism, Canopy, Cantilever, England, Essex, Modernist, Neobrutalist, Oriel, Piazza, University
Materials
Ancaster limestone, Bronze, Columns, Concrete slab, GGBS concrete, Glazed facade, Glazing, In-situ concrete, Limestone, Oak, Steel
Professional Team
- Architect: Patel Taylor
- Client: University Of Essex
- Structural engineer: Techniker
- M&E consultant: Mott Macdonald Fulcrum
- Quantity surveyor: PRP
- Project manager: Sweett Group
- CDM Co-ordinator: CCAS
- Approved Building Inspector: Colchester Borough Council Building Control Department
- Main Contractor : Kier Eastern
- CAD software used: Microstation
