WAN AWARDS 15 Education

Burwell Deakins Architects has completed the David Keir student hub and auditorium at Queen’s University Belfast, which was recently shortlisted for both a WAN Education Award and RIBA Northern Ireland Award.
The project involves the creation of a new pavilion at the heart of the university and the refurbishment of an adjacent lecture theatre. Together they form an active set of collaborative spaces, supporting different modes of teaching and learning and acting as a catalyst for new pedagogic structures.
Located in the existing David Keir Building’s main courtyard, the 250sqm (approx.) Corten steel clad pavilion echoes the colour of the existing brickwork and the city’s tradition of shipbuilding, whilst meeting the university’s request for a dynamic building form to be achieved using ‘everyday’ building technology.
The steep rake of the existing lecture theatre has been organised to provide a series of terraces, upon which Burwell Deakins’ award-winning ‘Connect’ seating system has been installed, allowing lecturers to move between didactic and collaborative learning modes, without having to move students or furniture.
These new teaching and learning spaces are linked to the building’s existing circulation route, drawing on a steady flow of movement to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. Internal windows enhance visual connections and encourage students to make use of teaching spaces for collaborative study when they are not in use. This extends the range of learning spaces available within the adjacent new student hub whilst improving the use profile of the auditorium.