Construction is now underway of a new hotel at the University of Nottingham. After years of planning a hotel to augment the services of the neighbouring East Midlands Conference Centre, the University opened up an OJEU process last summer resulting in over 100 expressions of interest for the commission. After an intense design competition, RHWL Architects were awarded the commission and have spent the last year developing the scheme alongside the University.

Tasked with the difficult brief of 200 bedrooms, executive rooms, restaurant, bar, gym and meeting rooms and to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, the design team got to work.  Over the course of last winter the scheme was developed and finessed with a view to gaining planning consent in the spring.  During this process it was presented to the regional Design Review Panel, garnering rave reviews and was granted planning consent last April with unanimous support from Nottingham City Council.  

Set amidst a beautiful orchard site, RHWL have designed the building to nestle harmoniously into the surrounding hillside, which rises a full 9 metres across the site. Designed as two bedroom blocks which engage the sloping ground with a regional natural stone, the bedroom floors then rise from these bases in a thin, horizontally-articulated terracotta banding, evoking the natural strata seen in local rock formations all around Nottinghamshire. These two blocks form a pocket in which a beautiful landscaped garden will be created. The bedroom wings are connected by the gem of the piece, as described by project architect, Corrie Jones: 

"Our idea is that we wanted to create an experience for visitors. When we first visited the site, we felt that it would be a pity to disrupt such a natural landscape. We decided that we would make all of our public spaces as open and transparent as possible." 

This has manifested itself in the ‘glass box’ in the centre of the scheme which houses the reception, lounge, library, and bar, with the restaurant just off of this space. 

"One of our key objectives was to enhance the connection from the EMCC, to the beautiful Millennium Gardens, and the rest of the University to the east. We wanted the visitor to be able to arrive at the front door and walk through the space and into the natural landscape beyond almost without noticing they’d ever entered the building." 

The central zone is a 7 metre high space with a 150m² structural glass roof. The result of all this glazing along with the challenging task of achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating presented another exciting opportunity.  Since they were forced to remove or relocate a number of trees - apples, cherries and other ornamentals to clear the site, the architects have replaced their canopies with a new manmade, but just as delightfully playful one. Across the entire length of the central hub, high above the glass roof they have designed a 45 metre undulating timber canopy of curved glulam beams and timber solar shading fins. This woven-like creation of rich timbers and fine stainless steel detailing will create exquisite shadows and plays of dappled light throughout the central area, recreating the effects of the previous tree canopies. 

The 202 guestrooms are spread between the two blocks, approximately 100 each, over 5 floors. As part of the brief, the design team were discouraged from building a tall structure that would dominate the dense vegetation around the site. To this end RHWL have  cleverly devised a scheme that steps in section while burying most of the plant and back of house functions underneath the hillside. The section increases by one floor from west to east so that the front façade of each end is only experienced as a three to four storey volume. By doing this, generous roof terraces have been created for use by visitors, one of which accessed directly from an executive lounge.

In line with the University of Nottingham’s reputation for sustainability, the BREEAM Excellent rating has consistently been the target for this project and the design team have worked throughout the process to assure this is achieved.  Passive measures such as building orientation, green roofs at high and low levels, and high-performance glazing maximising the use of natural daylight while providing protection from solar heat gain are integral to the design. These, along with more active measures such as ground source heat pumps, combined heat and power(CHP) and photovoltaics are a few of the initiatives being used to ensure this building is built to the highest environmental standards.  

This summer the University appointed main contractors, BAM to carry out the construction. RHWL are novated to them, and along with Graven Images Interiors, services consultants Elementa and Clarke Nicholls Marcel Structural Engineers, are delivering  £18m D+B contract.  After spending the first 2 months excavating approximately 15,000m³ of earth, they are now well on their way casting the ground and first floor slabs and columns. Now, the entire team is crossing it’s fingers that the midlands has a kind winter, so that this time next year the university can open the doors to another of their many beautiful and award winning buildings.