Engineering building ranked in top 5 in UK university

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER ENGINEERING BUILDING RANKED IN TOP 5 IN UK UNIVERSITIES
The Architect’s Journal places Landmark building fourth in the UK
The University of Leicester’s world-famous Engineering Building has been ranked among the best buildings in Britain’s universities by The Architect’s Journal.

The 1963 Grade 2* Listed building by James Stirling and James Gowan was ranked fourth in the Journal’s top 10 buildings, celebrating the best in British academic architecture.

The citation comes after the Engineering building was cited earlier this year as one of the top 10 most inspiring buildings in the UK, alongside Hadrian’s Wall and Stonehenge.

The building was designed and built between 1959-63. The short-lived Gowan-Stirling partnership aimed to design each building in a style that reflected its use.

Head of Engineering at the University of Leicester Professor John Fothergill said: “The Engineering Building was the first post-Modernist building in the UK. The building goes against the grain of concrete 1960s tower blocks – it is designed to excite and to be exciting. The building comprises a tower and adjacent workshops and laboratories, with the famous glass room sitting on triangular struts running at 45 degrees to the face of the building.

“The top storey of the tower, the 11th floor, is a water tank that supplies a pressure head to the hydraulics laboratory on the ground floor via enormous pipes that run down the side of the main staircase. The design is like that of a ship. The first three floors of the tower are taken up with the two lecture theatres that stick out of the building at right angles.

Floors three to six have laboratories on the southern side; it’s rumoured that the corners were mitred to prevent them overhanging Victoria Park and preventing planning permission. The fourth floor also contains a large meeting room over which the top of the tower is suspended by four thin concrete columns.

“The elegant office of the Head of the Department on the sixth floor is testimony of the input that the then Head of Department, Sir Edward Parkes, had to the design of the building. Above that there are four offices to a floor until the water tower is reached.”

Professor Fothergill added: “The large laboratories and workshops on the ground floor are starting to feel a little outdated as requirements have changed; temporary internal rooms have been incorporated and probably need some rationalisation. However, the supersonic gas feed designed into the building is still utilised and the mechanical workshop still serves well.

The building then rises up to 3 floors of laboratories. These are well used. The building was designed for 200 to 300 students and now contains getting on for 500!

Paul Goffin, Director of Estates, commented: “The Engineering building is probably one of the most famous of the 20th century and we are very proud to have such an iconic building within the campus. It doesn’t come without its own idiosyncrasies and given its listed status we have always been very careful how we have maintained and improved the building.

“We hope to improve the setting further within the next few years in accordance with the University’s new Development Framework Plan and in doing so we aim to complement the teaching and learning and research that is undertaken within the building.”

The Architects’ Journal is the voice of architecture in Britain. The journal sits at the heart of the debate about British architecture and British cities, and forms opinions across the whole construction industry on design-related matters.

You can find out more here: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/the-top-10-british-universities-architectural-league-table-part-two/5209855.article

Images of the Engineering Building available from pressoffice@le.ac.uk

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•