The design of the Charles Carter Building is closely tied to the history of Lancaster University’s hilltop campus. With colonnaded elevations in a restrained palette of black brick, glass and aluminium, the prominent four-storey block for the Management School recalls the rational character of the university’s 1960s masterplan by Peter Shepheard and Gabriel Epstein.
Over the years, ad-hoc development compromised the order of the campus. In 2005, JMP was appointed to develop a new university-wide masterplan, which set out to reveal and clarify the original framework; several subsequent building commissions supported that ambition, notably the Engineering Building and Health Innovation One. The Charles Carter Building in particular plays a crucial role in restoring a legible structure to an estate which now totals more than 100 buildings serving 20,000 students.
Client: Lancaster University
Dates: 2008—2011
Architect and Landscape Architect:
John McAslan + Partners
Consultants
Ian White Associates
Gardiner & Theobald
Buro Happold
Hoare Lea
General Contractor:
Galliford Try
Awards
Winner
Commendation
Restoring order
The original campus comprised low-rise buildings clustered around courtyards, linked by the covered pedestrian ‘Spine’. The site for the 4,000m2 Management School is at its southern end, surrounded by disparate buildings and open spaces. While the brief called for flexible teaching and office accommodation on a modest budget, the location also offered an opportunity to reassert order through a confident, formally composed ‘object building’.
This intention is most evident in the building’s massing and facades. Square in plan and rationally ordered, it is wrapped in a disciplined grid of large windows framed by massive piers of black brick that lend visual weight and durability. On the southern elevation, the piers expand into a double-height colonnade – an emphatic gesture of welcome. Its soffit is formed of black brick, as are the reveals of deep-set windows above. Together, the ‘carved’ openings underline the building’s commanding, monolithic appearance. The massive colonnade also shelters a walkway leading from the Spine to a quiet courtyard behind the school, enhancing the permeability that the masterplan sought to restore.
Spaces to meet and study
Inside, the emphasis shifts to adaptability and sociability. The plan is composed around a generous, full-height atrium set deep within the building. A freestanding lift tower in pale, fair-faced concrete provides a strong visual anchor, while the palette is softened by limestone flooring and warm timber balcony fronts. With daylight drawn down through a glazed roof, the bright, calm space makes a distinct counterpoint to the dark, ordered exterior, and the circulation hub acts as a natural place of congregation, popular with students from across the university.
Shepheard and Epstein intended that campus buildings should have a mix of uses: ‘a fruit salad of functions’. That concept is echoed in the range of facilities and flexible spaces within the Management School. The ground floor contains a lecture theatre, seminar rooms and a social learning space, so teaching and informal study animate the building throughout the day. Above, three floors of office accommodation are arranged on a rational, regular grid to allow a mix of cellular rooms and open-plan areas, with partitions that can be reconfigured as needed. This flexibility supports a broader aim to create academic space that can respond to new styles of teaching, and accommodate changing organisational structures without major alteration.
Low cost, high performance
Two additional requirements added to the design challenge – a notably modest budget for a high-calibre academic building, and ambitious targets for sustainability. A BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating was achieved through active and passive measures, including the effective solar shading provided by the articulation of the facade, the use of daylight drawn through the atrium to reduce reliance on artificial lighting, and continuous collection of microclimate data through the Building Management System to ensure efficiency in heating and ventilation. The efficient plan and limited number of robust, high-quality materials contributed to both economy and longevity. Sustainability, pragmatism and concerns for conviviality have shaped a building that addresses the history of the estate together with contemporary academic needs and longer-term aspirations for campus life.
