Library And Attached Stairs To Grounds At The University Of East Anglia

University Library at the University of East Anglia, built in two phases in 1968 and 1972 to designs by Denys Lasdun and Partners. The scheme was commissioned in 1962 as part of a master plan for the new university and completed by Bernard Feilden and David Luckhurst.

The structure consists of 12-inch thick reinforced concrete slabs spanning both ways, supported on 20-inch by 20-inch columns spaced at 22 feet 6 inches centres. Increased loads at the perimeter are supported on factory-made precast concrete walls 6 feet 6 inches deep and 8 inches thick, which also serve as natural light diffusers. External precast spandrel panels 11 feet 3 inches long interlock with the structural columns. The building has a flat roof with service and lift towers. Six floors in total are arranged with pedestrian entry off the university walkway at second-floor level. Two floors of reading and stack space are positioned above the entrance and administration floors, with two further floors of reading and stack below. Services, lifts and stairs rise within an internal vertical core, leaving the remainder of the space as flexible as possible.

Windows have aluminium anodized frames with vertical pivots. Precast concrete transoms acting as parabolic reflectors span over the windows at 7 feet above floor level. These walls and wide concrete transoms create an intimate scale at the perimeter. The setback administrative floor over the entrance provides the building's modulation and emphasizes the entrance floor and walkway, which continues as a gallery round two sides of the building. Top ventilation windows are set back to the inner edge of the transom. A spiral staircase descends from the second-floor entrance walkway to ground level in the corner. Concrete stairs in unpainted concrete occupy the junction between the two phases.

The building was designed to accommodate nearly 500,000 books and seat 1,000 readers. The interior features stacks, fluorescent light fixings, and seating in bright colours positioned close to the windows.

The University of East Anglia was founded in 1960. Lasdun was commissioned as consultant architect in April 1962. The 165-acre site comprised parkland on the edge of Norwich, formerly used by the local authority as a golf course, flanked by the River Yare which was dammed to form a lake around 1977. Lasdun sought to preserve the flat, marshy and open valley landscape. The library, positioned at the centre of the site in a greensward or harbour created by Lasdun as the centrepiece of his campus, became the university's first signature building.

Attached stairs to the grounds are also included in this listing.