Sainsbury Centre, attached walkway, underground loading bay, and retaining walls to loading bay access road at the University of East Anglia

The Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia was built in 1977 for Lord and Lady Sainsbury to designs by Foster Associates, with Anthony Hunt Associates serving as consulting engineers.

The building comprises a single-storey structure over a basement, arranged in 36 bays with a rectangular form in both plan and section. The design follows proportions of 16:4:1. The structural frame consists of trussed, tubular steel prismatic latticework with columns and single-span beams, clad with sheet aluminium panels and partially glazed.

The exterior walls are formed by columns which constitute the wall thickness, faced with small rectangular panels primarily of sheet aluminium. The two entrance bays on the south-west side are fully glazed to their full height, and the curved junction of wall and roof is partially glazed. Glass-panelled areas are punctuated by rectangular arrangements of circular ventilation fans which serve as a design feature. The exterior aluminium panelling is a 1988 replacement, carried out on the architects' advice. The insulated wall thickness houses plant, services and some storage. The end walls are impressively glazed with pioneering 7.3 metres high glass panels fitted with internal glass fins and sealed with mastic. The south-east glazed end offers views from the elevated site down towards the Broad, a lake. At each end, the building extends one bay beyond the glazing to form a brise soleil.

The centre is connected to the Teaching Wall (a Grade II listed building) by a raised ribbon walkway with glazed sides. This walkway provides access to the north-east side of the Sainsbury Centre at a raised level above the reception area, delivering visitors to a short internal bridge linked to a metal spiral stair accessing the main floor.

Internally, natural light filtered through four strips of roof-top glazing is controlled by bands of adjustable louvres at the ceiling. Light from the walls is managed by perforated louvres at the sides and blinds (added later) at the ends. Circular ventilation fans are arranged internally in linear groups of four in each bay as design features. The architects designed the exhibition areas as flexible, reusable spaces with the single-span beams and wall-housed services leaving the ground floor as open as possible. The floor is divided into six distinct areas. The south-eastern end forms an exhibition gallery, separated from the central gallery by the reception bay, which comprises an entrance lobby on the north-east side and a café on the south-west, with a circular reception desk at its centre. The north-east glazed entrance contains two circular-lobby doorways. The reception bay was rearranged in 2004 when a light well and opening for a circular stair were cut through the floor to create a top-lit shop in the basement beneath. Access to the main exhibition gallery, termed the 'living area', is via a recently positioned central opening in a waist-high partition alongside the reception area. This space contains axial and angular freestanding panels designed by the architect as artwork mounting surfaces. North-west of the exhibition floor are two mezzanines divided by a partially sunken study area now used for information technology. The north-east side has a glazed entranceway. The two mezzanines form exhibition floors above glazed offices and tutorial rooms beneath, supported on circular columns sheathed with sheet aluminium. Metal circular stairs with tubular handrails and glazed panels below (added in 2006) provide access to the mezzanine levels and down to the basement. A restaurant at the north-west end is accessed along the north-east side of the adjacent mezzanine.

A concrete ramp at the north-west end provides vehicular access to the basement. The sunken loading bay, grassed on its surface, is screened from the main basement area by folding doors with circular lights. The basement, primarily used for workshops, is relatively narrow and runs just off-centre the length of the building. A main goods lift and corridor on the south-west side (which also functions as a cable conduit) serve the basement. A curved corridor from the basement forms a direct entrance to the Crescent Wing, which is built into the ground at the south-east end. The Crescent Wing was completed in 1991 and is too recent to be included in this listing. However, it should be considered for inclusion when it reaches sufficient age.