The 1979 Babbage Building will be refurbished and extended. The original concrete frame – a characterful waffle-slab constructed square grid –that will be revealed by stripping out suspended ceilings and overhead services. The design created open plan spaces through the formerly enclosed plan which open out into a new atrium that links old and new.

Glazed screens make physical and acoustic separations between workshops and teaching areas but maintain a sense of connectivity and natural daylighting throughout.

Externally, the building is unified by glass and sky blue ceramic cladding and reflective grey brick. On the upper level, terraces provide additional outdoor teaching spaces, bringing more opportunities for creativity, cross-disciplinary collaboration and wellbeing.

Reusing the structure of the Babbage Building means that the New Engineering and Design Facility will inherently have far lower embodied carbon than a new-build alternative.

The new façade contributes to the operational efficiency of the building with improved airtightness, and environmental conditioning makes use of the thermal mass of the concrete frame. Heating is delivered from on-site Air-Source Heat Pumps that will connect to a future Heat Network, while an onsite PV array will offset CO2 emissions.