Jennie Lee Building

As part of their corporate strategy, following the completion of their new Library Building, the Open University commissioned the design & construction of the new Jennie Lee Building to provide a single Maths Research Facility building at their Walton Hall Campus to house existing faculty members under one roof instead of being distributed campus-wide as at present.

After demolition of the existing Jennie Lee Building, originally housing the Open University Library, the new Jennie Building has been built in its place. This is a 3 storey building with a 1700mt2 footprint per floor providing Cellular Rooms, Departmental Clusters, Analysis Suites, Meeting Rooms, Observation Labs & associated AV Control Room, IT workshop Areas, state-of-the-art Server Room & Comms Rooms, Break Out Areas, Toilet Cores, etc.

The Jennie Lee Building is an exemplar building providing a light & airy environment that is naturally ventilated by use of a custom designed undercroft labyrinthine vault discharging via a central atrium that has an inflated ETFE translucent material roof. The building mass is used for thermal advantage and areas of suspended ceiling are therefore limited.

The majority of services are routed through floor voids and special attention has been taken with services on view. The majority of lighting luminaries have individual PIR/PE Cell control with a central back-of-house lighting control system in place. Luminaries are wire suspended from the exposed soffitts co-ordinated with exposed powder coated ventilation ductwork to present a modernistic non-cluttered appearance.

We were appointed by Galliford Try as M&E Services Contractor on a Design/Build basis, value £2.5M, to carry out the complete installations that included:

  • MTHW incoming district campus wide heating mains
  • Air Conditioning
  • Environmental Control to specialist areas
  • LTHW Trench heating to internal spaces
  • Comfort Cooling to Lab Areas
  • DHWS Services
  • Above Ground SVWP pipework
  • Ventilation Services
  • Thermal Insulation
  • Central Plant equipment & installation
  • BMS Controls & Field Wiring
  • Incoming electrical supplies from remote Substation
  • Main & Sub-Main Distribution
  • Lighting Installations
  • Small Power Installations via floorvoid busbar system
  • Fire Alarm Installation
  • Security Installation and Access Control Installation
  • CCTV Installations and Lightning Protection Installation

Project Team

  • Client - The Open University
  • Main Contractor - Galliford Try Construction
  • Architect - Swanke Hayden Connell Architects
  • Consultant - Buro Happold
  • Quantity Surveyors - Ridge Associates
  • Services Value_ : £2.5m