Company Details
Company NameBurwell Architects
AddressUnit 0.01 California Building, Deals Gateway
Deptford, London SE13 7SB
London
United Kingdom
Map It
NameRobert Park
Job TitleCommunications
EmailEmail hidden; Javascript is required.
Phone07813 120773
Role of this organisation in the project being enteredArchitect
Category
  • Public Building - Public Buildings used by the public for any purpose, such as assembly, education, entertainment, government, healthcare, transport or worship. This will also include civic centres, community centres, libraries, visitor centres, culture, health + wellbeing, faith, education, sports venues and stadia, transport, central + local government, entertainment and event venues
Name of organisation entering the Awards (if different from above)Burwell Architects
Role of this organisation in the project being entered (if different from above)Lead Designer
Project Name (written how it should appear)Object Based Learning Room, Wilkins Building
Project AddressWilkins Building, UCL Main Campus
Gower St, London WC1E 6DH
London
United Kingdom
Map It
Client NameDavid Young
Designer/Architect NameNicholas Burwell
Contractor NameBevan Hancock
Project Description

We were commissioned by University College London to produce design solutions to improve a variety of core areas of the Grade 1 Listed Wilkins Building at their main campus in Bloomsbury. Included in this package of works was a brief to convert an existing room that had been used as a refectory, into a new Object Based Learning facility. UCL have a fantastic collection of historic objects associated with scientific exploration and cultural endeavour – and this new room provides both exhibition space for the objects, with a study area to examine, review and learn from them.

The project required an advanced technical specification, with high quality lighting, audio visual, data connectivity and air conditioning. Delivering this within a building with Grade 1 status presented a significant design problem. Our innovative solution was to introduce a completely new ceiling raft constructed from lightweight steel trusses and timber. This structure is supported by two new storage pods at each end of the room, so does not require suspension or support from the ceiling or walls. This principle protects the historic fabric of the room and provides a concealed network for the technical specification. It is essentially a removeable object within the room, that has minimal impact on the listed building – a fully reversible intervention.

The design of the raft features a repeating pattern of inset timber veneered panelled triangles which provide support for lighting and speakers. The lighting design, contained within the raft, provides both ambient lighting to complement the refurbished rooflights that bring natural light into each end of the room, but also task lighting for the study areas below. In addition, linear LED lines of light are integrated into the top of the raft, giving soft uplighting on the ceiling, highlighting the historic detailing of the coffered ceiling above.

The project construction costs were £900,000, and the works were completed in January 2020.

Materials Used

It was important that all materials for the ceiling raft should be as lightweight as possible. The raft needed to span 15m, the length of the room, supported on two joinery furniture pods at either end. Quicklock Live aluminium trellis was specified for the spanning truss, with a fabric covered acoustic material between the structure and the panels. The triangular timber frame was in tulipwood, with Woodsorba veneered acoustic panels for the infills.

Below, a new floating engineered hardwood floor with rubber inserts protects the original parquet flooring beneath, and existing oak dado panels around the room have been restored and polished. Freestanding display cabinets for UCL’s objects, allow the existing panelling to run behind.

Sustainability

Like most Universities, UCL are operating a programme of works designed to make the best use of their existing built assets. In the spirit of retrofit, we believe that the contemporary refurbishment of underutilised spaces within university campuses, is fundamentally the best way to minimise CO2 production and carbon use. Sometimes it takes an innovative design response to unlock the potential of an existing space, especially within heritage buildings, and we strongly believe that this is always preferable to new development and should be the first point of enquiry when planning infrastructure projects.

The Object Based Learning Room has been designed as a flexible multi-use space with a maximum occupancy of 50 people. There is no natural ventilation in the room, so the provision of supply air is necessary to ensure the comfort of those using this space. Innovative sustainability is extremely difficult in an internal, closed room of a Grade 1 Listed building, although energy meters have been provided in the space that give readings back to the central ICL Energy Monitoring System. In this way, energy use can be tracked to aid potential reductions in consumption. All materials specified have been sustainably sourced.

Issues Faced

Working with listed buildings is always complicated, which necessitates extra care, dedication to the building and thorough research. After understanding the culture, fabric, formal qualities and technical functions of the space, our approach is to remove any unnecessary accruements to the original fabric, then repair and re-layer with new additions in a way that does not harm the building. Heritage buildings must be retrofitted in such a way that ensures that interventions can be easily removed at a future date. In our view, this is the essence of successful heritage refurbishment.

These principles encapsulate our approach to the refurbishment of the Object Based Learning room. Perhaps the greatest challenge was to intervene to deliver a complicated technical brief in a heritage context. We worked very closely with the service engineers, Elementa, to fully understand the potential of the project from an M&E perspective.

Additional Comments

Unlocking the potential of a room like this, in a Grade 1 listed building, with an ambitious brief for use and programme, was a great design challenge. Without touching the walls, and ceiling, we have created layers of new functionality through design innovation and technical specification that has really unlocked the potential of the space. And we have done so in a way that is completely reversible. In addition, we have created a new floating object, in the Object Based Learning room, that is beautiful, striking and sympathetic to the space.

Supporting Images
  • Supporting Images
  • Supporting Images
  • Supporting Images
  • Supporting Images
  • Supporting Images