University of Greenwich - Library and Academic Building

 

University of Greenwich - Library and Academic Building

We were structural engineers with Heneghan Peng Architects on the new University Library and School of Architecture for the University of Greenwich. The building was short listed for the 2015 Stirling Prize.

The highly constrained site lies in the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the West Greenwich Conservation Area. It is surrounded by a number of listed residential buildings, a Network Rail cutting and Hawksmoor’s Grade I St Alfege Church.

The structural frame is an exposed reinforced concrete frame with extremely high quality finishes to columns, slabs and walls, which has required careful coordination. A highly complex, articulated façade with stone and precast concrete cladding provides the main frontage along Stockwell Street and the railway cutting. The roofs to the building comprise a series of accessible green roofs with soil depths of as much as 600mm, which will be used for seminars and research.

The structural design was produced in 3D using Revit, enabling enhanced coordination with the complex articulated facades and services distribution.

In 2014 the project was shortlisted for an EU Mies Award and the RIBA Stirling Prize.

Client: University of Greenwich