The Monica Partridge Building (formerly known as the Teaching and Learning Building) is the sixth project we’ve delivered for the University of Nottingham to date. Designed to provide a focal point for the University Park campus, the new hub acts as a welcoming nexus for students as they move across the university’s new Learning Quarter.
We based our concept design on a diagram with six volumes of column-free teaching spaces defined by pedestrian desire lines and grouped around a central top-lit atrium. The building’s broad range of learning environments includes seminar rooms, a 306-person lecture hall, and a beautiful double-height Learning Hub for quiet studying and peer mentoring. Breakout areas and a new outdoor square allow students to mix outside of class, while the atrium draws in natural light and provides generous circulation routes.
With its ample natural light, warm materials palette and beautiful campus views, the new facility provides a truly inspiring atmosphere for teaching and learning. Its flexible layout is designed to respond efficiently to the changing needs of students and teachers alike, and thanks to passive techniques and green technologies that reduce energy consumption, it’s environmentally efficient too, achieving a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.
It has won numerous accolades, including a 2019 RIBA National Award.
RIBA National Award winner 2019
"A white terracotta tile rain screen, whose depth of reflection and subtle colouration continually changes as light falls on each elevation, defines the upper façade of the blocks. Below a datum line... the plinth is detailed in finished masonry. These materials have been chosen carefully and the building should age gracefully because of it."
Our design gives great consideration to the teaching, learning and social interaction this new building will facilitate.
