HULT International Business School
Transformation of a listed brewery and recent extension into a new undergraduate campus for the Hult International Business School.
The former St. George's Brewery, on Commercial Road in Aldgate East, a historic landmark from the Victorian era, was identified as an exciting location for Hult’s first UK undergraduate campus.
The Grade II Listed brick-built building had been extended recently with an open concrete-framed shell, generating a rich mixture of spatial characters. Studying each of these spaces we made an “inventory of rooms” that plotted their scale, material and atmosphere. Our ambition was to emphasise, complement and enhance their character, drawing attention to ceiling height differences, column sizes and existing surfaces, and to organise the Campus so that students, teachers and staff would be brought into contact with a variety of spaces throughout the day.
The plan was organised by ideas of 'informal learning', with lots of break-out space to promote collaborative working, study spaces for individual work and classrooms that have the atmosphere of ‘found’ spaces. A lively and informal character is created to appeal to the students whose ages range between 17 and 24.
Key to this organisation was the insertion of a new, generously scaled staircase. This is a striking, sculptural wooden element that provides physical connection and visual links across and between the floorplates. Located at the core of the building, it plays an important social role, facilitating meetings between people passing through, encouraging them to pause on its carefully formed landings.
The material language of timber carpentry extends from the staircase to all other insertions within the existing fabric. Washed in a lime coating and enriched with beads, studs and perforations, the elements are given a visual density and tonal patina that resonates with the fabric of the existing building. Within the newer, concrete-framed building, the timber insertions take the form of full height walls that create acoustically sealed lecture rooms.
Within the old brick brewery spaces, a number of smaller new rooms were created. Conceived as large, free-standing elements for meetings and private study, they echo the large brewing vats and tuns that once occupied the building. In the ‘spaces between’, intimate settings are created by the arrangement of contemporary furniture pieces and design classics with carpets and floor standing lighting. Overhead services are exposed and carefully co-ordinated and the overall atmosphere is further enhanced by graphic installations that refer to local heritage and contemporary media.
