Archive for category: Sir William Henry Bragg Building

The construction of the new Sir William Henry Bragg building at the University of Leeds celebrated a milestone today, as the building reached its tallest point.

To mark the occasion a special “Topping Out” event took place. University colleagues were joined by representatives from main contractor BAM Construction and architect design team ADP, BAM Design, Arcadis, Gardiner & Theobald, ARUP and Silcock Leedham.

Colleagues watched as the building’s plant room was lifted onto the roof, forming the highest point of the new building. The plant for this technologically advanced new building is complex, and BAM has assembled the plant room off-site in a factory environment, with the support of local Leeds company Waites Mechanical Services, saving time and cost on the project.

Set to open its doors to students in 2021, the new building represents a significant investment by the University in a new integrated campus for Engineering and Physical Sciences. The facility will include first-class laboratory and specialised teaching spaces, enabling cutting-edge research, and outstanding student experience, whilst enhancing the University’s research power and strengthening collaboration with industry.

Steve Gilley, Director of Estates and Facilities said:

“I’d like to thank all of our partners who have contributed to this flagship project to date. It’s important to mark key milestones, and recognise the importance of the expertise from extended project teams, to ensure the successful construction of this new facility.”

For BAM Construction, John Phillips said:

“Topping out is a centuries old tradition, and this year BAM is 150 years old, while the University’s origins date back to a similar time, to 1874. Today we are both known for being leaders in modern technology. The University is looking to the future, and BAM are delighted to be helping them to create facilities for the next generations of students and academics.”

Joe Morgan, Director, ADP said:

“This project was conceived in 2015 as a critical component of the strategic masterplan, to create a collaborative hub for computing and physical sciences. The building champions the need to address tomorrow’s challenges whilst minimising its impact on the environment, so it is appropriate that one of the components designed to make this building so highly energy efficient should be lowered into place as part of the ‘topping out’ celebration.”

Ian Aldous, Director, Arcadis said:

The scale of this project – from the stakeholder engagement through to the design solution and delivery – has been immense and everyone involved has been on a real journey. As such, to see the critical milestone being reached is hugely satisfying for all involved, and a testimony to the dedication of all parties to the future vision.

 

A dramatic sculpture honouring revolutionary science will be in a prominent position on the side of the new Engineering and Physical Sciences development.

The two-storey artwork by Sara Barker has been granted approval by Leeds City Council planning department. The sculpture will feature on the outside of the Sir William Henry Bragg Building, which is under construction in Woodhouse Lane. It honours Sir William’s pioneering research in developing X-ray crystallography at the University in the early 20th century. Bragg and his son Lawrence were awarded the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Within the sculpture lies symbolism that alludes to the Bragg equation, which explains the relationship between X-rays directed onto a crystal and their diffraction from the crystal, allowing the atomic structure of materials to be investigated. Parts of the sculpture will be finished with iridescent paint which refracts light rather than creating colour by pigment, so it changes colour as viewed from different angles. This type of iridescent paint was developed by Professor Helen Gleeson, the current Cavendish Professor of Physics at Leeds – the same position held by Bragg in his day.

The new building is due to open in late summer 2020. The dramatic sculpture reflects the University’s ambition to deliver a step change in the research activity in engineering and physical sciences, to enhance a culture of multi-disciplinary working, and support significant advances in our understanding of the physical world. The artwork physically refuses to be pinned down by media, sitting between the qualities of drawing, collage, textile, painting, and sculpture. It draws our eye to shapes and symbols suspended in a delicately woven metal tableau.

Sara Barker said: “I want the sculptural language to shout out to the powerful advances happening in the physical sciences at the University, and also to the rich history of the University in its broadest sense, for the sculpture to reveal itself over time and become part of the fabric of the building. I hope the forms found in the sculpture provoke questions, as people discover the scientific lettering of Bragg’s famous equation, and also a more patterned and playful narrative of molecular and textile and crystallographic structure. But frankly, this is an artwork and it has to be captivating on a level we can’t articulate, and as an artist, the moment of truth is in seeing ideas thought through by hand in the studio, tactile and intimate, forcibly evolve into the monumental and concrete.”

Dr Jim Young, Programme Director for the building at the University of Leeds says: “We are extremely pleased with the news that this beautiful artwork has received planning permission from the city council. It is a unique and intelligent piece of art and I look forward to seeing it in all its glory.”

Sara Barker was born in Manchester in 1980. She was educated at Glasgow School of Art and University of Glasgow. Significant solo exhibitions include The faces of older images, Mary Mary, Glasgow (2017), a weak spot in the earth, The Approach, London (2017)  CHANGE-THE-SETTING, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2016). Past commissions include Last of Light (3 needles) Angel Court Piazza, London (2017), warp- and weft-, CASS Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex (2015). She will also be working with Leeds Art Gallery (2020) to coincide with the new commission at the University.

 

You might also like…

The University is to name a key building in its £96m investment in engineering and physical sciences in honour of one Leeds’ most influential scientists.

 

Sir William Henry Bragg won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his son Sir William Lawrence Bragg, for the development of X-ray crystallography.

Their work revolutionised science by allowing researchers to examine the atomic structure of materials in detail for the first time.

Now the Sir William Henry Bragg Building will form a key part of the new developments on campus, which together with the Bragg Research Centre, which recognises both father and son, will bring researchers together to create a critical mass in ground-breaking interdisciplinary research and impact.

The name has been approved by Sir William’s family, with great grandson Charles Bragg highlighting his relative’s commitment to industry, and saying: “The Bragg family are sure Sir William would feel very honoured with this new building being named after him by the University of Leeds, given Leeds was where he did the fundamental work leading to the joint Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915.”

 

 

To read the full story, click here.

Find out more about the Integrated Campus for Engineering and Physical Sciences

  

You might also like…

The University’s ambitious plans for advancing engineering and physical sciences has taken a major step forward today with a green light from Leeds City Council.

The £96m investment aims to provide an exceptional environment for students and support researchers from across engineering and physical sciences to work together to help solve fundamental problems and tackle key industry challenges.

Supporting the priorities of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and strengthening the University’s international reputation in interdisciplinary research, the investment is a key part of the University’s £520m campus development programme, aimed at securing Leeds’ position in the UK’s top 10 research universities.

To be completed by the summer 2020, the £96m development will relocate the School of Computing and School of Physics and Astronomy, bringing them together with colleagues in Chemistry and Engineering for the first time.

The investment will create state-of-the-art facilities that will rival the best in the UK and will include the new Bragg Research Centre for Advanced Functional Materials.

 

The Bragg Centre

The Bragg Centre for Advanced Functional Materials will be the new home for the University’s internationally-recognised activity in materials characterisation and analysis of soft matter and nanostructured thin films.

It is named after Sir William Henry Bragg, the early 20^th century mathematician and physicist who developed X-Ray crystallography at Leeds, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915 for his work together with his son Sir William Lawrence Bragg.

The Bragg Centre will also be the location for to the University’s research in functional materials and devices, which is part of the UK-wide Henry Royce Institute. This institute brings together world-leading academics from across the UK to study and develop advanced materials, with Leeds’ specialism in Atoms-to-Devices and the translation of new material systems from the atomic scale to operational device.

Professor Lisa Roberts, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, said: “The Bragg Centre’s interdisciplinary culture and state-of-the-art facilities will support and attract the best minds at all levels, placing our exceptional standard of research on a global scale.

“The Bragg Centre will be a fabulous environment for cross-disciplinary teams to work on big technical challenges, drawing on our existing strengths, while working together in new and disruptive ways to improve both the quality and the scale of our research; working in such an innovative environments will also transform how we can work with our industry partners on real world problems.”

 

Superlabs

The ‘superlabs’ concept behind the development will bring together existing strengths in applied and fundamental research to support interdisciplinary problem-solving research groups. They will tackle challenges facing the private sector and industry, from conception and theory to imaging, fabrication, application and translation.

Professor Steve Scott, Dean of the Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences, said: “We are creating an exceptional environment to carry out cutting-edge research; the interplay between people, working culture, equipment and buildings will be central to creating the highest quality findings and original ideas.

“The quality of our research, brought about through leading facilities and the exceptional breadth of our academic staff will drive external partnerships and attract international support, leading to greater depth in funding bids and a rise in standards of research.”

 

Research capability

The £96m complex is fully funded by the University of Leeds and will bring together existing scientific hardware from the schools involved. In addition, a significant strategic funding bid is being prepared for Research Councils to bring in the very latest equipment in a range of fields.

Areas of research it will support include energy efficient computing, telecommunications, sustainable magnetic materials, sensors for use in biological systems and extreme or remote environments, pharmaceutical formulations, ‘smart foods’ and medical technologies.

 

Benefits for students

The University’s undergraduate and thriving postgraduate and postdoctoral communities will also benefit, with the investment prioritising world-class teaching and laboratory spaces for research-based learning. The news comes as the University prepares to launch the Leeds Doctoral College, to further support postgraduate researchers.

Once completed, the development will host around 2,000 staff and students, who will study across the spectrum of physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and computer sciences.

Positioned on a prominent public-facing location of the campus in Woodhouse Lane, the proposed 15,700m² building is the largest, single-project investment ever to have been made on the University campus.

  

You might also like…