This redevelopment has transformed a dated, inaccessible, and inefficient local heritage asset – originally designed for a bygone era – into a world-class hub for engineering education, research, and industry collaboration. Once fragmented and unwelcoming, the building suffered from poor airtightness, heat loss and limited accessibility. Through future-focused design, it now delivers Net-Zero Carbon performance in operation while championing sustainability, inclusivity, wellbeing, and safety—actively addressing gender and social inequality in engineering.
Now home to cutting-edge research in digital manufacturing, sustainable propulsion, and biomedical engineering, the building features specialist teaching areas, workshops, and a student-run, community maker space. A central social learning hub fosters integration across disciplines, encouraging interaction between students, staff, and industry.
Architecturally, the scheme balances heritage and innovation. A sensitively refurbished original frontage is paired with a striking new timber structure. The glulam and CLT roof, combined with a reduced envelope, significantly lowers embodied carbon and eliminates operational carbon.
The eye-catching gateway building was used to develop a bespoke sustainability strategy with the University, aligned with RIBA and United Nations Sustainability Development Goals.
This is not just a building—it’s designed to create a new benchmark for research and teaching spaces, showcase the University and bring vibrancy and a gateway to the city. This beacon of engineering excellence celebrates the North East’s proud engineering heritage while driving progress on a global stage.
Three Winning Facts:
- Re-invention of a local heritage asset creating an iconic civic intervention: Serving as a gateway to the campus and the city, making engineering visible to inspire and engage the local community.
- World-class teaching and research – one unified vision: Bringing together disparate engineering departments to create a beacon for world-leading education, research and collaboration – empowering future engineers to innovate.
- An integral part of the University’s decarbonisation strategy – The Biofuel CHP (combined heat and power) plant also decarbonises six existing buildings on campus to achieve a net zero carbon in-use development and make a substantial impact on the University’s NZC 2030 target.
