Brunel University

The Eastern Gateway is a new building at Brunel University that will house state of the art facilities for the Business School over four floors including teaching spaces. The £32 million flagship entrance to the university will bring together the previously disparate elements of the Business School which is home to 2,000 students. In addition there will be a 600 auditorium, a main reception, gallery and café.

Designed by Architeknic Architects the 7,000 square metre building will have a precast concrete frame, walls and plank flooring, finished with a render system on insulation. The auditorium is zinc-faced on a structural framed system retained in place by a steel frame.

The structure of the Eastern Gateway is formed with beams, carrying the SFS cladding support system, faceting between 10m high columns around the perimeter. Roof trusses span across the building with a 6m high ventilated penthouse enclosure (45 degree roof slope) over part of the roof. A second floor link atrium connects to the adjacent three storey concrete teaching and research building which wraps around the auditorium. Billington Structures supplied the structural steelwork for the building using beam and columns with lattice truss.

As the main contractor, Laing O’Rourke Construction, aimed to manufacture and assembly elements of the Eastern Gateway off-site in a factory controlled environment to minimise disruption and reduce carbon emissions.

Designed with sustainability in mind, the building is aiming for a BREEAM Excellent rating with heating being provided by a wood pelleting boiler and much of the building using natural ventilation. The auditorium is designed to provide a mixture of natural ventilation using a stack effect, together with controlled ventilation and heating systems as and when required.