University Of Nottingham, University Park, Pure And Applied Sciences Buildings, General

Building Notes (Pure and Applied Sciences Building)

In 1957, as part of the University of Nottingham’s post war expansion, Basil Spence and Partners was employed to design a new sciences complex for the University’s main campus at University Park.

On the southern half of the site the practice designed a number of buildings for the Faculty of Applied Sciences. These included four laboratories, of which only two were eventually built, two teaching blocks, a science library and a tower block for electrical engineering. The buildings are all simple and geometric in form.

In the northern half of the site the practice designed new chemistry and physics buildings for the department of pure science. The chemistry building is planned around a central courtyard. It has three main floor levels and a mezzanine floor which is entered from the courtyard. The physics building has three main blocks of differing heights which are joined to each other by two common links. Both buildings contain teaching and research laboratories, lecture theatres, staff rooms and services.

All the buildings were constructed using reinforced concrete. The practice used a variety of external finishes; including different coloured brick facings, Derbydene stone, and guarea and elm boarding.

Archive Details (Pure and Applied Sciences Building)

The material in the Sir Basil Spence Archive shows that despite the site being divided in two by the existing road layout, Spence conceived the new science buildings as integrating into the overall University scheme. This was eventually achieved by the diversion of the main route around the area, the positioning of the science library and tower block across the central axis of the site achieved this.

The manuscript material in the Archive explains that the Spence practice underwent a re-organsiation part way through this project with Andrew Renton, the lead architect, setting up his own practice in 1961 but continuing his involvement with the project by retaining ‘dominus status’ for the project so that at its completion, credit was given to Sir Basil Spence OM RA in association with Andrew Renton.

Archive Summary (Pure and Applied Sciences Building)

The Sir Basil Spence Archive holds three manuscript files for this project. These include documents relating to an earlier job undertaken by the practice for an agricultural sciences building based at the University's campus at Sutton Bonington. There are also 147 photographs, which show views of numerous models for the development as well as views of the completed buildings, and two drawings showing perspectives, plans and elevations of the scheme.

This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.

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.