Queen’s University’s new £17.5m Business School provides state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities for more than 3,000 students and 130 academic staff on the Riddel Hall campus in Belfast. Peter Minnis RIBA, Project Director at TODD Architects, outlines how the School’s vision was achieved and how the scheme marks a new chapter for sustainable energy in the Northern Ireland.
In 2016 Queen’s University’s new Business School merged with the William J Clinton Leadership Institute, bringing leading academics and industry experts together to deliver a portfolio of executive education and leadership programmes. In 2017, due to its continued growth and the success of the Leadership Institute, the School identified a need to expand its facilities.
Sonia O’Hare, School Manager, Queen’s Business School, explains: “To address the significant growth in our student numbers and the unprecedented demand for our graduates, the University with full support from local government and employers, approved a capital investment in excess of £26m in a new Business School Building. Designed by TODD Architects, the building provides state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities for more than 3,000 students and 130 academic staff and will play a key role in the future growth and development of Northern Ireland’s business and finance sectors.”
The School’s vision was for a state-of-the-art facility that would both respond to the changing educational needs of its rapidly growing post-graduate community and be a transitional link between education and employment. In addition, the School was keen to explore how the “in-between” spaces linking teaching and learning accommodation could be more than just circulation corridors, encouraging thinking on the introduction of informal study and break out areas.
Sustainability was also a core component of the brief, in line with the University’s commitment in all their new buildings to move towards net-zero carbon and to reach a minimum BREEAM Excellent rating.
A site was identified on the southern boundary of Queen’s University’s Riddel Hall campus on the Stranmillis Road, Belfast, straddling the end of the lawn that sits in front of the Grade II Listed red-brick building and an existing surface carpark some 4.5m below. The car park was surrounded with mature woodland, providing a wonderful backdrop and sense of enclosure to the site. Construction work started on site in September 2020, with Newry-based Felix O’Hare the main contractor and WSP the project manager.
TODD Architects’ appointment arose out of a design competition, promoted by the University. We presented a plan diagram based on how we envisaged people might move through the building and a conceptual architectural approach that proposed carefully knitting the built form into its landscaped setting, both of which are still very evident in the finished building.
Plan and section diagrams based on an analysis of how people would move through the building established a route linking the main entrance on the lower ground floor, with a secondary entrance at the level above, for staff and students crossing the lawn in front of Riddel Hall from other parts of the campus.
Widened corridors from these entrances meet at the building’s principal organising device, a linear, top-lit, triple height atrium, that at its base houses the building’s reception, café and study areas. Fully glazed screens allow views into the space from surrounding accommodation at upper levels. An accommodation stair provides access to the upper ground floor, where informal study booths overlook a central landscaped courtyard (echoing the courtyard in the listed building) with the executive education teaching spaces, meeting rooms, post-graduate study areas, academic offices and shared common room/break out spaces, arranged around and above it. The primary teaching spaces are restricted to the lower ground floor, with the large volume lecture theatres set into the surrounding landscape to lessen their visual impact, with grassed terraces formed on their roofs above. The architectural response carefully knits the building into its sensitive landscaped setting and seeks to ensure a connectivity for its users with the surrounding mature woodland.
This was achieved by keeping the building height below the tree canopy and fragmenting the edges of the building footprint to minimise tree removal. A landscape strategy was developed that both augments and enhances the natural setting, while the incorporation of “green roofs” offer sustainable drainage benefits and visual continuity. The external palette of materials is consciously restrained, combining red clay brick, bronze framed aluminium, floor-to- ceiling glazed screens and red cast stone, the latter used principally to delineate entrance colonnades at the upper and lower entrances. Internally within circulation spaces, exposed concrete soffits with floating ceiling rafts, board marked concrete walls, timber wall sheeting and terrazzo tiled floors, combine to create a calm, robust, and understated aesthetic.
A low energy, ecologically sensitive design approach was promoted from the outset, with a BREEAM standard of Excellent targeted. Measures incorporated include a geothermal heat system with 40 piles driven to a depth of 125m into the Sherwood sandstone formation, with some 10km of collector pipework fitted to feed the ground source heat pumps and provide low-level constant heating to the building via an underfloor heating system. This will result from a heat generation/ perspective in 10% reduction in life cycle costs compared to a gas boiler installation and a massive 61% reduction in carbon emissions from 120 tonnes to 46 tonnes. In addition, to achieve the BREEAM Excellent rating the building incorporates other items such as a water leak detection system, water efficient equipment, responsible sourcing of materials and construction waste management systems. The project was handed over in May last year. Professor M.N. Ravishankar, Dean and Head of Queen’s Business School, comments: “Queen’s University Belfast is moving towards net zero, and this building – which uses sustainable ground source heating – is an important part of the journey.
The design of the building, which is sleek, contemporary, and future-focused, boasts the scenic quality of being nestled in the trees of the Stranmillis Conservation Area. “The building is helping us a) grow our international stature and esteem by hosting high-profile events; b) expanding our research-led dialogue with the business community by providing space for collaboration and dissemination activities; and c) offers a fantastic student experience via tailor-made areas for learning and study.” Sonia O’Hare, School Manager, Queen’s Business School, concludes: “We are delighted with our new landmark building which will take Queen’s Business School into the next phase of its development and serving future generations to come. Through collaboration and a commitment to excellence, TODD Architects have ensured that this facility will enable the Business School to continue its growth, by attracting the best staff and students from Northern Ireland and around the world, and to produce graduates who will make a positive impact on society.”
