Hadrian Building

The drama and integrity of this building has been sadly compromised by a series of additions. In its original form it was a bold and brutal insertion into the campus, offering the rawest of material finishes in a wonderfully composed group of forms. The first students' union was built in 1926 and this extension sits behind it, its height limited to protect the view of its older neighbour. The internal planning was deliberately open and generous circulation spaces were intended to act as meeting places too. Built to house a dance hall, debating chamber, union offices, committee room and a refectory, all served by kitchens at the lowest level of the sloping site. A 'flying wing' (now with its undercroft largely enclosed) gave a commanding air to the building, much of which was cleverly massed and tucked away by virtue of the topography – the large volume of the dance hall was on level 4, but sat at the same height as the ground floor of the 1926 building. The reinforced concrete frame was exposed where possible and a rich, textured palette of exposed precast panels, grey granite, prepatinated copper and bare brick drew on new brutalist tropes. The interior was cleverly layered to provide views through the building as well as moments of intimacy in cloistered and colonnaded spaces.