Architects’ impression of the proposed improvements to the Atrium

Introduction

The Atrium is our largest and most significant indoor place, bringing together students, visitors and staff from all parts of the University to eat, drink and socialise, and increasingly, to learn. As the great common room of the University, the Atrium accommodates events and gatherings of all kinds, from election hustings to tea parties to international conferences, throughout the year.

As announced in August 2012, we are upgrading your Atrium to increase comfort, capacity and functionality. The upgrade will be in two phases, this year and next.

Phase One (stripout, redecoration and refurnishing) is well underway:

• The former coffee bar and welfare facilities have been removed, and temporary welfare facilities for Catering staff have been provided.
• The Atrium and the landings on the first, second and third floors were repainted in August.
• We’ve ordered the new furniture and this will arrive in October.

Phase Two is more ambitious and complex, involving some exciting major alterations next summer. Now that the new term has started, we would like to share our work-in-progress proposals with you and invite your comments, questions and suggestions via the comments form (below) and the @LincolnEstates Twitter account. Your feedback will be shared with the architects and project team as an important part of the design development process.

Entrances: a warm welcome for everyone

The original design of the building’s entrances creates an east-west ‘wind tunnel’ with the entrance doors often open simultaneously. As a result, the Atrium can become very cold in winter, despite the underfloor heating. To reduce draughts and increase temperatures in winter, we are proposing to introduce new entrance lobbies at the east and west ends of the building as part of Phase Two, as shown below. Revolving doors will maintain a constant seal against draughts, with push-pad entry for wheelchair users.

Architects’ sketch of one of the proposed new entrance lobbies

Upstairs, downstairs – improving space and comfort

We plan to clarify and declutter the ‘internal street’ through the building at ground floor level by moving the staircases off the main axis, over to the east and west walls of the Atrium. New pods on each side of the servery entrance will house a coffee bar for high-quality hot drinks, an improved vending area for 24×7 refreshments, and the relocated cash tills for the servery.

Architects’ impression of the improved servery entrance (centre), vending area (left) and coffee bar (right)

New soft seating areas adjacent to the coffee bar and vending area will provide further options for students, staff and visitors, protected from the circulation by new glazed screens.

The repositioned staircases will lead up to two new comfortable seating areas on the first floor. We’re planning to call these areas One East and One West. These will be descendents of the successful Learning Lounges in the David Chiddick (Business & Law) Building, providing gathering and breakout spaces for student and staff use before, during and after formal teaching sessions in the 19 seminar rooms on this floor. We know that many students gather on the existing first floor landings, and in the corridors outside MB1001-09 and MB1010-17. One East and One West will be much more pleasant, with comfortable seats, groupwork tables, and power sockets for charging your technology. Arrive early to catch up with classmates; stay between seminars to relax or compare notes. Seminar groups will also be able to break out into One East and One West for multiple parallel conversations, before returning to their seminar rooms for plenary discussions.

Architects’ impression of the coffee bar and vending areas, and the new first floor seating areas, One East and One West (see also image at top of article for a different perspective)

Busier but quieter – acoustically engineering the Atrium

Acoustic studies of the existing Atrium confirmed and quantified what we already knew: the Atrium was too loud and echoic, with excessive background noise levels (56 decibels from café and vending plant when empty and 62-64 dB when occupied)  and peak levels of 80dBA generated primarily by metal chair legs scraping on the tiled floor. In terms of echoes, the average reverberation time is 3.49 seconds, against a recommended level of 1.50 seconds. We’re planning to reduce background noise and reverb times significantly through this project, making for easier, quieter conversations. The Phase One furniture arriving in October will help, as will the introduction of acoustically absorbent panels throughout the space. These may be mounted on the undersides of existing and proposed walkways and landings; and directly on and / or suspended from the ceiling:

We also plan to introduce a new floor covering on the ground floor, on top of the existing heated tiles. Samples of several flooring options are on display in the Atrium now.

Your voice

More than ever, we want the new Atrium to be a venue for creation as well as consumption – a major node in the network of places for learning and teaching across campus. Our proposals will develop over the coming months and we will share updates with you on this blog as well as on the printed display in the corner of the Atrium.

We would like to invite your comments, suggestions and questions regarding the above proposals. Please use the form below, or tweet @LincolnEstates if you prefer.

Thank you for participating.

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Project architects: Core Architects

Acoustic consultants: Sharps Redmore Partnership