Location: Belfast, United Kingdom.

Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

The University of Ulster is planning to move its Jordanstown campus to Belfast’s city centre, creating a new urban campus in the city’s Scotch and Cathedral Quarter. The move will involve the construction of three new buildings, providing 73,000 square metres of accommodation, which will house six faculties and associated corporate and teaching facilities. The move is expected to provide a number of strategic benefits to both the city and the university, including the creation of an ever-evolving university district, improved student experience, and support for the city centre’s cultural and retail establishments. The university will also be taking advantage of existing public transport infrastructure, promoting a shift away from car dependency towards sustainable transport modes.

The new facilities will include classrooms, lecture theatres, specialist labs and workshops, academic and departmental accommodation, library, student hubs, student support facilities, catering and associated ancillary support functions. The lower floors will provide public through routes and access to the library and catering facilities, creating an inclusive environment planned to breakdown social and cultural barriers to higher education. The design of the buildings takes inspiration from the Antrim hills and Lough surrounding the city, and is used as a device to respond to the adverse urban context marked by a low 19th century scale and 20th century highways infrastructure. The largest of the three buildings is defined at upper level by a series of vertical blocks of varying height punctuated by large atria. The buildings are clad in brick, in keeping with Belfast’s industrial heritage, and the development reconnects historic street patterns to the network of lanes and entries that provides a high quality pedestrian route through the cultural quarter. The project is being designed to meet BREEAM excellent, with large north facing atria bringing light deep into the plan of the building without glare to reduce lighting loads. The scheme uses a high performance façade to reduce energy consumption, supported by a large photo voltaic array on the roof of the three blocks. The green and brown roof is being designed to improve the ecological value of the site and provide a visual amenity for the building occupants and surrounding city.

Photo credit: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.