Sainsburys Centre Refurbishment
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SITE LOCATION & CONTEXT

The site is located at the eastern end of the Grade II Listed Lasdun Wall, which is adjacent to Chancellors Drive to the north, Founders Green and University Drive to the east, Registry to the south and the rest of the Lasdun Wall to the west (see plan).

Immediately outside the north elevation of the building, the site currently comprises a small amount of accessible car parking and servicing areas for the existing building, as well as landscaping, including some mature trees intersected by a pedestrian connection to the Registry and upper levels of the Walkways and to the lower level of Chancellors Drive. The site has a varied topography sloping north west down towards Chancellors Drive.

Existing Site Plan, Google Earth Satellite image

HERITAGE CONTEXT

 

The Post-War Listed Building

  • The Lasdun Wall is a Grade II Listed Building
  • It was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun in 1962-4. Lasdun was also the architect of the National Theatre on the South Bank in London
  • It is a component part of the wider 1960s campus and provides the backdrop for the Grade II* listed Ziggurat accommodation blocks
  • The interiors are not listed and have been significantly altered since construction
  • The building was designed for flexibility and easy change to allow for developments in teaching and research

 

 

 

 

The Design

  • Lasdun used his favoured material, concrete to design the campus and create an urban landscape in a rural setting
  • The buildings are an example of Lasdun’s architectural theory of ‘Strata’, which imagined the buildings as a metaphor for real landscape
  • The design follows the natural contours of the site
  • There have been many changes since construction, but the Lasdun Wall remains the central component of the UEA Campus

UEA - Architecture as a metaphor for landscape

 

The 1963 Masterplan for the campus

PLANNING CONTEXT

The site is located within the defined boundary of the UEA campus as identified with the City Council’s Development Plan, and therefore the principle of University related development on the site is established.

The UEA’s Development Framework Strategy (2010, updated in 2019) as endorsed by the City Council considered the scope for intensifying the use of various areas of the existing campus to accommodate both new buildings and extensions of existing buildings. The proposed extension, whilst sensitive to the heritage setting of the building, seeks to safeguard the most significant features of this valuable heritage asset and ensure the building continues to adapt and retain its intrinsic flexibility (as Lasdun intended) to continue to have a viable long-term future. Retaining the building in this long term academic and research use is of most heritage significance, as this forms the basis upon which the purpose of the building was originally conceived.

Since December 2020, pre-application meetings have been held with City Council Planning, Landscape, Conservation and Design Officers, alongside engagement with both Historic England and the 20th Century Society who are all key stakeholders in considering proposals for this building. This programme of preapplication consultation will continue up to submission of the application. Academic staff from across the University, including senior members of the Faculty of Science, leading researchers, laboratory managers and an extensive Technical Assurance Team have been engaged over 18 months in briefing and design work.