Brambell Laboratory, Bangor University

Brambell Laboratory, Bangor University

Built in the Brutalist style with clear expression of structure and materials, the Brambell Laboratory is a six-storey building including lower ground floor, with a rectangular cuboid form and flat roof. Its longer sides face northwest and southeast. The building is constructed with a bush-hammered reinforced concrete frame and precast concrete cladding with board-marked finish to the lower and upper floors. A recessed red brick core occupies the first and second floors with chamfered corners, positioned behind a colonnade of thin rectilinear columns. These columns connect the battered lower floors to an inverted ziggurat of cantilevered upper levels. Steel-framed glazing forms continuous ribbons around most of the upper storeys. At roof level, a sunken inner quadrangle allows continuous glazing to a circulation corridor linking upper storey offices, interrupted by a massive T-shaped pillar and crossbeam.

The building's main entrance is unusually positioned on the northwest side, turning the building's back to Deiniol Road. The entrance is positioned into the side of the base of a four-storey stair tower, formerly connected to a demolished animal house, which projects from between two blind concrete towers. Three columns stand to the left and five to the right, each with a middle spur connecting across to the second floorplate. The brick core is blind to the left and heavily glazed to the left with vertical glazed sections deep-set in chamfers. Third floor horizontal windows sit between columns which terminate at the fourth floor with a ribbon window continuous around both corners, shaded by a cantilevered roof.

The short northeast side is heavily glazed and symmetrical apart from its sloping base to accommodate the lower ground floor. A massive central pillar interrupts the top-level ribbon window, with two columns to either side. The middle bays are fully glazed to the first and second floors. Battered lead cladding over ground floor rooms continues around to the southeast side.

The taller southeast elevation facing Deiniol Road features a colonnade of twelve columns, the right six of which have mid-level return spurs. A continuous ribbon window runs along the top floor, below which the left seven bays are set behind columns and recessed with a continuous balcony. The right four bays have clerestories. The fifth bay from the left aligns with the front entrance and has a deeply recessed large window at first floor level, with a projecting wedge above. The second through fourth bays from the left have deeply set vertical slit windows over the second and part of the first floor around the museum. The battered lower ground floor with clerestory windows is partly buried at corners where the rear service road dips and rises sharply.

The short southwest side has a central stair tower fully glazed from ground to fourth floor with two columns to either side. The left bay is fully glazed at first and second floor levels, while the right bay has another slit window to the museum.

Internally, all walls are constructed in smooth concrete blocks, and internal change has been minimal, although lecture rooms have been refurbished. The museum in the south corner occupies double floor height across the first and second levels with a balcony level featuring rough in situ concrete shelving, which continues around into the west corner student common room, originally the library. The slit windows to the museum remain intact, though boards have been placed across them to prevent natural light damage to the exhibits. The main entrance is at the base of the exterior stair tower which originally connected to the demolished old zoology building. The first, second, and third floors each now have a stairway leading nowhere, with the end landings used for storage. The main staircase beside this is lit by a single roof light and wraps around a hollow irregular octagonal concrete core with non-orthogonal openings.