Uni arts building scoops a top award
A PIONEERING new Coventry building has picked up a major accolade.
The University of Warwick’s new Faculty of Arts headquarters was named West Midlands Building of the Year at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) West Midlands regional awards.
The building, which opened in May last year, will now go onto the RIBA National Awards, in recognition of architectural excellence, on June 22.
With the support of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the impressive £57.5m building brings together the departments and schools of the faculty under one roof.
“It is evident that this simple mission became the driving principle behind the entire scheme, to create a vehicle for collaboration and cross-pollination of the arts, while drawing inspiration from the site’s unique parkland context,” the Institute said.
“The combination of the client’s ambitions to create a new model of working for the faculty, and the architect’s creativity in articulating this ambition through a holistic design approach, has resulted in a delightful building with a series of engaging spaces that are both inviting and flexible, enabling collaboration, creativity and innovation.”
Vice-provost and Chair of the Faculty of Arts, Rachel Moseley, said she was ‘so delighted’ with the recognition.
“At the very fabric of the building is collaborative working,” Dr said.
“The architects, contractors and our university estate team worked alongside the arts faculty to create a studentfocused community space.
“The building provides a collective home for the arts and humanities but has created a welcoming environment for students and academics across the whole of the university.” The building itself is shaped by the surrounding trees that define the site’s parkland character. “Its feature staircase, inspired by the structure of a tree, organically grows through the central atrium space.
“Each branch helping to demarcate various communal spaces to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration,” the Institute added.
““At the base of the stair, it splays like a tree’s root ball to form an amphitheatre that activates the ground floor and addresses the main entrance.”
...a delightful building with a series of engaging spaces that are both inviting and flexible, enabling collaboration, creativity and innovation