The Chancellors' Building.

Higher education at high speed.

The Chancellors’ Building at the University of Bath is a general teaching facility on the university’s Claverton Down Campus. The development includes two large lecture theatres, numerous classrooms, two computer laboratories, and associated amenity spaces.

Quick thinking.

The building needed to be user friendly and flexible to allow a wide-range of departments to get the most out of the space easily and with a minimum of management. It also needed to be delivered within a short and demanding timescale to meet the academic calendar. Added to this were the challenging ground conditions and tight site constraints.

To enable a quick start onsite, we undertook an early works enabling package. This helped us in quickly clearing the site of existing buildings and services and expedited installation of the new structural foundations. We created innovative engineering visualisations to clarify our solution and ensure the client could get a rapid understanding of how we intended to approach the project.

Heating for the future.

Energy performance and ongoing operational maintenance were also key considerations. For the teaching spaces, we specified highly-efficient mixed-mode ventilation where possible, so that motorised windows could control temperature and ventilation.

In order to maximise plant efficiency, a new district heating system was installed for the site, featuring a CHP unit and gas boilers, and with which the building was the first to be connected. With enough provision to facilitate the connection of future buildings, this district heating loop helped the university achieve all of its ambitious sustainability aims.