Heslington East campus expansion wins three architecture awards
Posted on 14 November 2011
The first phase of Heslington East and the superb Ron Cooke Hub building, which sits at the heart of the campus development, received Gold Awards at the RIBA Northern Network Awards 2011 in Newcastle.
The University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Estates and Strategic Projects Elizabeth Heaps was also presented with a Client of the Year award.
The RIBA Northern Network Awards celebrate and reward architecture, landscape and interior design across the north of England. The awards aim to highlight the excellent work produced by architects and their teams, demonstrate the importance of good quality architecture and urban design in contemporary society. They also demonstrate how good architecture is integral to the economy of the region.
Judges described Heslington East cluster 1 as “an extremely complex project that has been carried out with great dexterity and aplomb”. They also said “the Hub manages to retain a very comfortable human scale, yet as the client has said ‘there is an air of excitement about the building which transmits itself into activities and people in it’”.
The awards recognise that the rich variety of spaces, places and buildings on our new Heslington East campus are creating a vibrant community for students, staff and our business partners
Elizabeth Heaps
The judges referred to Elizabeth Heaps’ enthusiasm as “highly infectious”, adding, “this client has successfully delivered a series of projects on time, on budget and to a high quality. Great architecture can only be delivered with the foresight of great clients and this client falls firmly into this category.”
Earlier this year the Masterplan for the Heslington East development also won a national RIBA award for architectural excellence. The design brief for the expansion was prepared with input from the University of York, the architects BDP, the engineers ARUP and planning consultants O’Neill Associates. The Ron Cooke Hub has also won a number of architectural awards including the York Design Award in the New Build, Non-residential, Public category.
Elizabeth Heaps said: “The University of York is regularly ranked in the top 100 universities world-wide for teaching and research, and it is therefore vital that our space and facilities are of the highest standard. The awards recognise that the rich variety of spaces, places and buildings on our new Heslington East campus are creating a vibrant community for students, staff and our business partners. The Ron Cooke Hub is rapidly becoming the meeting place of choice for business leaders in York.”
BDP’s Architect Director Stephen Hill added: “It has been a pleasure working together with the University of York to reinterpret the best aspects of its original campus in a manner suitable for today’s very different university environment. The project has given us a unique opportunity to create dynamic and exciting learning spaces and it is a delight to see these being owned and loved by their users.”
The 65-hectare Heslington East campus extension, is based on a combination of public and private funding, including support from the European Regional Development Fund. It will result in an increase in total student numbers at the University to 15,400 as well as creating up to 2,000 new jobs.
The £200 million first phase of the development at Heslington East opened in October 2010 and includes new accommodation for the Departments of Computer Science and Theatre, Film and Television and the York Law and Management Schools, as well as Goodricke College and the Ron Cooke Hub. Work is underway on the second phase including the relocation of Langwith College and a new Sports Village, both due to open in 2012.
The RIBA Northern Network Awards were presented at the Newcastle Civic Centre on 4 November to Elizabeth Heaps and BDP architects Stephen Hill and Richard McDowell by Angela Brady, the President of RIBA.
Notes to editors:
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The judges’ citations read:
Heslington East Campus
The campus Masterplan creates a “living and learning” new quarter, mixing academic research and teaching with student accommodation. The building groups enclose a sequence of landscaped gardens and pedestrian spaces which encourage both movement and gathering.
The new campus accommodates a diverse variety of buildings and landscapes creating micro-environments all designed at a very legible human scale.
This is an extremely complex project that has been carried out with great dexterity. The judges were impressed by the skilful design approach that wraps academic and residential buildings together and it can be best described as a “Yin and Yang arrangement”, all held together by a subtle, yet distinctive landscape strategy.
Ron Cooke Hub, Heslington East Campus
This Hub building is the public face of the new campus. It is conceived as a “grand hall” with multiple activities under one roof encouraging academics, researchers, students and external enterprises to meet and exchange ideas.
In keeping with the rest of the campus buildings, the Hub manages to retain a very comfortable human scale yet as the client has said “there is an air of excitement about the building which transmits itself into the activities and people in it”. It is a great place for informal meetings with a café, informal seating areas and the “demonstration box” housing both a surround projection and audio facility.
Client of the Year (Yorkshire)
Elizabeth Heaps
The client’s enthusiasm for her projects is highly infectious. The University comprises an incredibly complex mix of buildings within a new landscape framework that would tax the skills and ingenuity of most clients and yet this client has successfully delivered a series of projects on time, on budget and to a high quality.
Great architecture can only be delivered with the foresight of great clients and this client falls firmly into this category.
- For further information on the Heslington East campus expansion visit www.york.ac.uk/campus-development/
- For more information on the RIBA Northern Network Awards 2011 visit www.architecture.com/RegionsAndInternational/UKNationsAndRegions/England/RIBANorthWest/Awards/NorthernNetworkAwards.aspx
- Yorkshire
and The Humber ERDF Programme 2007-2013
The regional ERDF Programme, approved in December 2007 was launched in February 2008.
The programme is managed by Yorkshire Forward on behalf of a regional partnership including the National Government, European Commission and Regional bodies.
The programme provides €583 million from the European Regional Development Fund to invest in the region’s economic development by 2013 with €271m for South Yorkshire and €312m for the rest of the region. South Yorkshire has extra resources to help with its transition from its earlier Objective 1 status.
Further information about the ERDF Programme in Yorkshire and The Humber is available at www.yorkshire-forward.com/erdf - European
Regional Development Fund
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) was set up in 1975 to stimulate economic development in less prosperous regions of the European Union (EU) and to act as a significant instrument with which the EU can support its Cohesion Policy.
As EU membership has grown, ERDF has developed into a major instrument for helping to redress regional imbalances. The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) manages ERDF in England.
Between 2007 and 2013, England benefits from an investment of €3.2 billion (approx £2.5 bn) of ERDF. It is delivered by regional programmes in each English region, managed by the Regional Development Agency. England also receives €177 million ERDF for two national cross-border co-operation programmes with France, Flanders and the Netherlands and another €193.8 million is available to the United Kingdom for participating in three trans-national co-operation programmes across the North West Europe, North Sea and Atlantic areas.
ERDF is directed at projects offering substantial benefits which meet the needs of an area and would not take place without a grant. It is used to provide help towards the project costs with grants set at a minimum level required to allow the project to go ahead. As a general rule, however, the EU contributes no more than 50% of the eligible cost with the rest of the funding, known as ‘match funding’ coming from other public sources.
Information about the European Union’s support for regional policy, including ERDF is available at www.ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.htm
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