Architect’s Account

RPP Architects and Hawkins\Brown were delighted to be appointed as lead consultant and architects on the new QUB Student Centre as the result of a two-stage qualification process and limited design competition. The significance and sensitivity of this opportunity was immediately clear in terms of both the pivotal location of the site, in its rich historical context and as an historic opportunity to establish a focal point, that could be the epicentre of life on campus, fostering a vibrant community for students, staff and the public.

As a shared facility, QUB’s brief for their new Student Centre was to bring the Students’ Union and university student services together in one location for the first time. The facility would also include Student Guidance facilities, flexible rooms for Clubs and Societies, shops, bars and a new Mandela Hall venue. The building’s name, One Elmwood, reflects this aspiration.

The initial design concept for the building as a simple, flexible container, to showcase and highlight the wide variety of different uses under one roof, was retained and refined through the design process that included building visits, rounds of client stakeholder engagement and pre-application discussions with statutory authorities. Construction of the 11,000sqm facility commenced in late 2020, opening two years later in time for the new academic year.

The building brief gathers together student support and administration with the original Union clubs and facilities. The Union night time entertainment venues can be operated separately and vertically on the western side, the division internally handled by dividing doors on different floor plates. The Union entertainments could manifest themselves as a separate building character, one that in turn takes stronger ownership of the adjacent, newly formed outside space set back off the street. Perhaps the rear and yard edge of this sunlit space can be developed with a low activating use. Similarly on University Road, the set back space between the original terrace and its gable awaits further definition or softening as a landscape pocket park and cafe.

If we cast forward decades to when the campus realm might be made whole, it is also necessary to backcast. The original

The glazed exterior presents an open and transparent view of the building and the functions within - during the day and especially at night. A series of ‘totems’ clearly define the main entrance without disturbing the façade behind. The large areas of glazing provide strong visual connectivity between the building interior spaces and the outside world, supporting the desire to encourage greater interaction between the University and the wider public.

Once inside, the foyer is a large, flexible space decorated with a mature palette of deep reds and timber to create a warm, calming atmosphere. The central building feature, a wide social staircase, leads visitors up into the building with clear and intuitive wayfinding. It was vitally important to us and the University that the building presented a welcome and inclusive environment throughout.

The building’s interior has been designed as a place to go before, between or after classes to study or catch up with friends, with a choice of larger, vibrant collaboration and cafe spaces on the ground floor and more intimate, quieter nooks on upper floors. A variety of student lounges, external terraces and quiet rooms provide opportunities for preparing lunch, relaxation or reflection – a ‘home away from home.’

Gareth Andrews RPP Architects

1960’s Union was of great social benefit to student life and included a communal canteen. The built form was, however, unremarkable and controversial in demolishing a fine Victorian terrace of student housing. This heritage loss was one trigger in the formation of the UAHS and lobbying for the first Listing of buildings in NI. Moreover, the conservation movement was prescient in recognising that these building losses were creating an even greater corrosion of urban and village public realms - often initiated by the road schemes of the time. Today, we may see also see conservation as an important ‘brake’ on the incoherent speculative urbanism, environmental damage and waste in these last five decades.

Embodied carbon in materials and construction is now being recognised as the largest part of the building’s lifetime carbon cost. As energy generation decarbonises, the case for the demolition of most buildings is rapidly becoming unjustifiable. In Belfast, and indeed most of our towns and villages, the vast tracts of empty sites, tarmac and vacant buildings add to this collective irrationality about where and what we should build. The presumption of a right to develop or demolish should be questioned in a society that is not growing - such constraint could have positives for the quality of architecture. We would recognise that new buildings and construction must produce the best buildings possible, putting longevity and design reflection to the fore. It would also obviate the need for the current speculative planning system; a rational and wholly different repair and renewal system could prevail that also puts attention on outside space.

In this case the 1960s building frame presented difficulties with its half basement, raised ground floor and split levels. The university did undertake a study to repurpose it and has made efforts to retain other campus structures. However, this second demolition and a new piled building represents a considerable carbon cost and churn. The measure of the new Students’ Union will be its ability to adapt and endure over time.

The changes in universities have been profound in the last decades; the merit of some changes can be questioned. Students and their needs appear to change and numbers have grown. It is important than open places are found or maintained that support gathering and the students’ values and engagement with wider society. 

Mark Hackett