School of Architecture and Built Environment
Client: University of Wolverhampton
Our Approach
The brief
CPW were excited to work on this ambitious project seamlessly combining the old and the new, now known as The Lady Aruna Swraj Paul Building.
The 85,000sq ft building located at the former Springfield Brewery had fallen into disrepair. The redevelopment project aimed to retain as much of the local heritage as possible, including the restoring the iconic clock tower to its original glory, whilst adding sympathetic new buildings.
The facility houses the newly created National Brownfield Institute, so will be instrumental in the development of future sustainable solutions for buildings.
The state-of-the-art building will house cutting edge facilities including 6 specialist construction laboratories, a top floor architectural super studio with double height ceilings, 125- seater lecture theatre and flexible teaching and learning spaces. This will provide space for 1,200 students each year initially, set to grow over time to 1,600 and 65 professional staff members.
Combining old and new
CPW worked closely with the university and the project team, to utilise the buildings existing infrastructure in order to develop flexible MEP services, to create innovative teaching laboratories for the various departments. The services carried out by CPW met the requirements of the University, without compromising the existing structure and character of the existing building CPW’s professional approach has significantly contributed to the delivery of a world-class facility.
We provided a wide range of MEP infrastructure from the ground up, including efficient underfloor heating in the expansive café and exhibition space and a mechanical ventilation system that is demand controlled on a floor-by-floor basis.
A new electrical distribution supplies the low and high level floors including workshop, laboratory, and studio space, all using highly efficient LED lighting to cut down on carbon emissions.
The building includes Photovoltaics on the south facing planes with glazing to the north that will provide the ideal usage of sunlight for powering the building.
The process of integrating the existing Grade II listed structure with the new building was a delicate process and involved ‘stitching together’ new and existing services. As such, we utilised BIM and created advanced models to co-ordinate the services. There was also coordination involved in the exposed services, as we needed to be sympathetic to the aesthetic of the heritage building.
The design provides a robust, flexible layout that offers scope for adaptation depending on the changing needs of the University. The new-build elements complement the existing retained building, echoing historic building lines and scale. Comprehensive repairs ensured that the retained buildings have been sensitively restored; ensuring that the layers of history, character of the buildings and a physical record of the adaption of the site over the years is retained.
To make sure the building performs to our high environmental and performance standards, we provided 18 months of dedicated on-site aftercare to monitor and finely tune systems.
RIBA West Midlands Award 2023
RIBA West Midlands Project Architect of the Year Award 2023
RIBA West Midlands Client of the Year Award 2023
Shortlisted for RIBA Reinvention Award 2023
Photography courtesy of Associated Architects