Teaching Wall and raised concourse, with attached walkways, at University of East Anglia, Earlham Road

Teaching Wall and raised concourse, with attached walkways, at University of East Anglia

A staggered spinal block of teaching accommodation, built between 1964 and 1970. The initial master plan was commissioned in 1962 from Denys Lasdun and Partners, and the building was completed by Feilden and Mawson following Lasdun's departure.

The structure employs cross-wall concrete construction with precast panels manufactured on site, measuring 10 inches thick externally with 6-inch loadbearing crosswalls internally. Four large basic components were manufactured in Norwich and assembled on site with some in situ concrete specials. The panels measure 2 feet 7 inches to produce a 21-foot overall grid. Internal joints are recessed, while external joints feature neoprene baffle and damp-proof backing—a system designed to achieve maximum repetition of units and flexibility in building use, applied consistently across both arts and science subjects. The central section was built of concrete frame construction clad in concrete block, with Siporex precast concrete roof units.

The building rises five storeys with service towers, linked by an in situ concrete walkway at second-floor level that connects to the adjacent Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces. Service entrances are provided from the roadway at ground level. The anodised aluminium windows were designed for resistance to chemical action and contain vertical sliding sash units with glass slid directly against the frame. The Chemical Sciences, Biological Services and Arts areas were constructed to Lasdun's original specifications; infill sections adopted a simplified system designed by Bernard Feilden.

Interior spaces were designed for rapid and easy change and are not of special architectural interest. The walkway consists of reinforced concrete with precast balustrading. Spiral stairs link it to ground level; similar concrete spiral staircases serve as fire escapes on the main spine building, particularly at the biological sciences end where the walkway stands furthest from ground level.

The University of East Anglia was founded in 1960 on a 165-acre parkland site on the edge of Norwich, previously used by the local authority as a golf course and flanked by the River Yare, which was dammed to form a lake around 1977. Lasdun was appointed as consultant architect in April 1962 and was determined to preserve the flat, marshy and open valley landscape. The ziggurats were positioned where the valley begins to rise, forming part of this landscape strategy. The spine was conceived in close relation to this topography, echoing the relationship between the infant and junior wings at Hallfield School (Westminster, 1953–5; listed Grade II*), but representing Lasdun's mature style at its finest.

Lasdun's aim was to create a 'five-minute university' in which departments and student accommodation would be concentrated on a compact site. This principle had been similarly explored by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon in their 1960 'ten-minute university' expansion scheme for Leeds. Both UEA and Leeds adopted the continuous teaching block principle, derived from North American, especially Canadian, models. Lasdun's initial scheme, published in May 1963, proposed development for up to 6,000 people over fifteen years and shows the ziggurats and long spinal teaching block in a form recognisably similar to but more complex and extensive than that eventually built.

The accommodation was designed to bring all teaching together, reflecting the vision of Vice-Chancellor Frank Thistlethwaite and the Academic Planning Board that the most productive research occurred at the boundaries between subjects and that much was to be gained by study within 'schools' of related disciplines. The Architects' Journal (14 June 1972) noted: 'The powerful sculptural forms of the Lasdun UEA make the university proud to find itself on the international circuit. The buildings themselves, however, should be seen not only as form-making and an intellectualised counterpoint between the building mass and the landscape; they give lessons in consistent detail throughout a wide-ranging building programme and illustrate a single-minded effort to ensure high quality maintenance-free exteriors and internal elements within permitted cost levels.' Of all the new universities of the 1960s, UEA's architecture 'has most consciously created a visual impression of experiment and enquiry, yet without the use of bizarre forms or materials, and notably without recourse to any academic architecture' (Tony Birks and Michael Holford, Building the New Universities, 1972). Lionel Brett, Lord Esher, described the concept as 'this beautiful organism ... this deeply felt and imaginative concept'.