Inside look at the Student Hub at Riddel Hall

January 8th, 2024

08/01/24

This article is featured in the January 2024 edition of Perspective magazine, to purchase a copy click here

Alvar Aalto once said that buildings should be assessed fifty years after construction, in part he meant their social integration and weathered patina of use. Approaching the new Student Hub at the School of Business this autumn the building has already settled visually into the sloped and treed context, a result of care in planning and following regulatory protections for the site.

Today we might extend Aalto’s idea of the longer arc of assessment in a number of related directions. Built fabric is a precious carbon resource and to date we have underestimated the importance of embodied carbon in new construction. If we are to make significant new buildings we need to ensure adaption and a built quality that might endure into the future. Aware of this later point the new School of Business was procured five years ago with a select interview and design approach process which was won by Todd Architects. Their initial diagram drops the building into a clearing in the slope of previous hardstandings with a resultant low slung impact on the setting of the Listed Riddel Hall.

Viewed from Riddel Hall the upper floor is well set back with a low brick pavilion extending along the lawn. This screen of brick transitions to a tight grid of windows and the portal of the entrance colonnade. The entrance sequence is therefore subtle and pressed deep into the massing. On entering this colonnade ones view is released out into woodland and guided down the landscape to a similar cast stone portico of the lower entrance. The massing of the lower approach appears quite different, it has an elegant colonnaded base set slightly forward from the main body of the building seen in full. There is a spatial enjoyment looking between these porticos at different levels, across the wooded landscape and the angled wall. The distinctive handrails are well set back and play an important role extending the line and plane of the lawn. On the main body of the building the recessed top parapet is deep enough to form another massing layer to this stepped elevation.

The upper colonnaded entrance continues to the grand stair hall running in section down through the entire building but that adeptly rotates the circulation axis through a right angle to align with the lower entrance and approach. This shift is negotiated by the turn of the long stair; its lower flight guides one to reception or, on the opposite approach, draws one to the upper foyer with its aligned external courtyard.

The stair and top-lit hall are well controlled in detail and the landing on the stair allows one pause to gather an understanding of the building. The massing of this stair return also neatly interrupts the primary through axis so that the lower cafe holds enough ‘room like’ quality which is then orientated out to a patio on the treed landscape of the south slope. Added to these well handled elements is the upper raised courtyard garden that organises the main bulk of the building seen on the upper plan, a pinwheel of offices and modest scale communal rooms is orientated out to the trees. The other major elements of the school, the lecture halls, are clearly read to the side of both entrance colonnades. The halls at the upper level are steeply raked counter to the landscape slope and form part of the upper colonnade. On the lower level the shallow and ‘U’ shaped hall arrangement is signalled by the extended rhythm of the colonnade along the elevation. This allows it to enjoy the treed context to one side.

The landscape courtyard is the other organising element with one side a cloister like series of seating booths, perhaps this occupied edge strategy might have extended over both floors. The courtyard is well proportioned and should be used in mild weather. The upper offices are more private and circulation shifts to the fire stairs, it would be beneficial if these were more visually apparent from the main circulation hall.

The stepping and modelling of the building mass occurs on the two approach sides and the remaining elevations are expressed straightforwardly as three floors looking into the trees. The early pinwheel diagram is clear in the intent to maximise smaller rooms or cells enjoying this treed aspect. The windows are large and well scaled though to an extent this reviewer would have advocated a regular matrix of brick and windows.

The massing of the approach elevations are well resolved – care has been taken to limit roof services and in ensuring the building does not have a ‘back’. Discussions with HED helped advocate for the uncluttered roofs and concealed services. In the enjoyment of seeing the both colonnades together across the landscape and mature trees, perhaps they may be linked by a narrow gravel path through the trees. The potential for this mid level link becomes apparent to a pedestrian approaching up the curved road and footpath the tendency is to get drawn along with the vehicles to the lower car park where there is no dedicated footpath and this elevation is too dominated by the car – something in common with many of our buildings here. The wider Riddel Hall site is a significant addition to the Queen’s campus but the walking approach is now too narrow, car access could be suppressed and the Stranmillis Road aspect made more welcoming on foot.

Buildings these days are assemblies of complex processes and many fractured elements, holding the detailing and space is difficult. Often the fragmentary aspects of building are those that will not endure and are most disposable and wasteful. All parties have worked hard for a quality that is evident in the care of bespoke details such as the handrails, the brick pavers at the cast stone colonnades and the well resolved stair and its hall. We can project this building working and enduring joining some fine university buildings of all eras.

One hopes the experience of use and communality of these buildings and the beautiful site rubs off on the students going forward into society and business. In hindsight we can see that education buildings in particular say much about our economics and values, recent decades have not always been progress. As Aalto reminds us the evaluation is more clear in fifty years time.

Mark Hackett

This article is featured in the January 2024 edition of Perspective magazine, to purchase a copy click here