Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 616517
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/616517
Building Notes (Agricultural Sciences Buildings)
In 1957 Basil Spence and Partners were commissioned to design a new agricultural sciences building for the University of Nottingham. This was to be located on the university’s campus at Sutton Bonington in the countryside outside the city. The building was planned for the teaching and research requirements of the departments of agriculture, and agricultural sciences.
It is a three-storey, narrow rectangular block, measuring 290 feet in length and 40 feet in width, running parallel to the frontage of an existing group of buildings. The accommodation consists of a number of different sized teaching and research laboratories dedicated to all aspects of agricultural sciences. There are also cold stores, constant temperature rooms, plant growth rooms, a radioisotope laboratory and animal houses. The animal houses extend as a third floor over half of the length of the building. A hydrology laboratory occupies an additional single storey wing on the building’s east side. The building has two main entrances, one of which is for undergraduates while the other, the research entrance, is for graduates and staff.
The block was constructed and finished using a variety of concrete techniques, and completed in 1959.
Archive Details and Summary (Agricultural Sciences Building)
The Sir Basil Spence Archive holds three manuscript files, containing details of work done by Sir Basil Spence and Partners for the University of Nottingham. The material mainly refers to commissions undertaken for the University Park campus where the practice designed a number of buildings for the departments of pure and applied sciences. There is, however, a small amount of correspondence and project notes relating to the development at Sutton Bonington. There are also 147 photographs and two drawings for the Nottingham work, of which 13 photographs are of the agricultural sciences building.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
