During the past twenty-five years, the University of East Anglia (UEA) has instigated a series of ground-breaking sustainable buildings on its campus, which is situated on the western periphery of the Norwich. This followed after the University’s first series of architecturally striking new university buildings, which included Denys Lasdun’s campus plan and famous ziggurat accommodation blocks (1963?1966), as well as Norman Foster’s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (1978).
In contrast, the Elizabeth Fry building by John Miller & Partners (1995) was celebrated as the lowest-energy building of 1990s Britain, rather than for the quality of its architecture. In the following years, RMJM’s Zuckerman Institute (2002) and the Thomas Paine Building by RH Partnership Architects (2009) advanced Fry’s low-energy approach. In 2010, the university established an energy and carbon reduction programme, committing to a 35?% reduction by 2015 from the 1990 baseline.
It was in the context of this recent history that the Enterprise Centre was handed over to its UEA client, the Adapt Low Carbon Group in the summer of 2015. Fulfilling both Passive House and BREEAM »Outstanding« credentials, the new-build has been promoted as »Britain’s greenest building« by the UEA. A key business aim of the Adapt Group is supporting and developing local businesses working with regionally sourced, bio-based materials and low-carbon technologies. (Oliver Lowenstein/Jakob Schopf)
In contrast, the Elizabeth Fry building by John Miller & Partners (1995) was celebrated as the lowest-energy building of 1990s Britain, rather than for the quality of its architecture. In the following years, RMJM’s Zuckerman Institute (2002) and the Thomas Paine Building by RH Partnership Architects (2009) advanced Fry’s low-energy approach. In 2010, the university established an energy and carbon reduction programme, committing to a 35?% reduction by 2015 from the 1990 baseline.
It was in the context of this recent history that the Enterprise Centre was handed over to its UEA client, the Adapt Low Carbon Group in the summer of 2015. Fulfilling both Passive House and BREEAM »Outstanding« credentials, the new-build has been promoted as »Britain’s greenest building« by the UEA. A key business aim of the Adapt Group is supporting and developing local businesses working with regionally sourced, bio-based materials and low-carbon technologies. (Oliver Lowenstein/Jakob Schopf)