The new Student Hub at Queen’s Business School is an outstanding achievement in holistic design, skilfully responding to a sensitive site, a complex brief and Queen’s University’s sustainability ambition.
Situated within the university’s south Belfast campus, the hub stands between the Grade B1 listed Riddel Hall and enclosing mature woodlands of the Stranmillis Conservation Area. The new building has two floors facing the front of the historic structure, separated by a neat lawn, and steps down to three floors on the other side, within the embrace of the woodland. This careful modelling ensures that views of the upper woodland canopy are protected. Both levels feature entrance colonnades, creating an elegant composition and a relaxed formality to the approach that is inclusive and welcoming.
Internally, the architects have carefully considered the volumetric and organisational sequence of spaces, with a clear understanding of how people will use the building. An assembly of differing types and sizes of teaching and learning spaces are arranged over three levels around a top-lit triple-height atrium space and adjacent courtyard space. These spaces are the pivotal moment in the building’s organisation.
The atrium space visually connects all floors, with the main stairs providing access from the lower- to upper-ground levels. The ground-level reception and café create a ‘living room’-like quality, opening onto the woodland. The upper-ground-level entrance provides generous and convivial circulation space and study booths overlooking the landscaped courtyard. The architects have created a memorable journey through the building. Sheltering colonnades, a dramatic central light-filled stairwell, and places for students, staff and visitors to pause and enjoy, are all managed in a way that is clear, logical and easily accessible to all.
The first-floor level is deliberately less connected and more reflective, accommodating quieter cellular academic spaces that overlook the landscaped courtyard. The larger volumetric spaces are cleverly positioned at lower ground. Here, a tiered lecture hall with floor-to-ceiling glass façades visually connects to the outdoors.
The external materials successfully contextualise the building, being minimal, monochromatic and consciously restrained. They comprise red clay brick, red cast stone, and red railings with windows framed in bronze aluminium that contrast wonderfully with the woodland setting, while resonating with the Riddel Hall across the green. Equally the internal materials reinforce an understated aesthetic: board-marked concrete, timber walls, terrazzo tiled floors and floating ceilings of timber and plasterboard conceal services to create a calm environment, framing the external landscape.
Responding to the client’s commitment to sustainability and biodiversity, this building pioneered low-energy and ecologically sensitive building design, and benefits from a major geothermal heat system extracted from the sandstone substrate. This is part of the University’s response to the climate challenge, successfully achieved through an outstanding design response that expertly blends functionality and aesthetics.
