URS Building
- location:
- Reading
- client:
- University of Reading
- role:
- Architecture
- sector:
- Education
- status:
- Competition
A competition proposal to retain the integrity of the existing building by adding clearly defined new elements
Design Engine were selected following a pre-qualification process to submit ideas for the re-imagining of the URS Building at the University of Reading. The University of Reading were seeking an iconic refurbishment of its 1970s URS Building, a notable example of architectural structuralism.
The retrofitted and remodelled, potentially extended building was to provide a home for the newly launched School of Architecture alongside the established School of Construction Management and Engineering and the School of Arts and Communication Design; the latter comprising the Department of Art and the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication.
Our competition proposals sought to retain the integrity of the existing building by adding clearly defined new elements. These additions developed from the original conceptual diagram of served spaces distributed from a central servant core. The exhibition space, studios and social learning spaces were added to the existing mix of traditional teaching environments to create a more vibrant and active building.
