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The New Refectory and Shannon Suite
The old St Mary’s refectory was an oddly shaped space characterised by a stage, complete with stage-set, curtains and carpet, chandeliers and a ramped conveyor belt tray clearance system (which sometimes worked). It had no view to the outside world, making it an introverted, self-focused place to eat a meal. All in all, it felt tired and dated.
The back of house accommodation had grown in a piecemeal way over the years and this resulted in poorly ventilated spaces with electrics which tripped every time the chefs turned the fryers on. Food deliveries and rubbish collections also took place right in the middle of an important University College thoroughfare.
The University College asked us to develop a scheme which would refurbish and expand the dining hall as well as provide a new purpose built kitchen and servery. It had to be built with the least amount of disruption to catering services, to a tight programme and budget, and provide a sustainable, energy efficient solution which was fully accessible to all.
We looked at the site at the western side of N-Block as an opportunity to provide a bookmark to the single storey ref, framed at the other side by the theatre. Building here would allow the kitchen and servery to be built independently of the existing catering operation, thereby allowing the University College to function normally through the construction process. This site also allowed an additional storey to be built and a brief was developed to provide three flexible conferencing rooms on the first floor.
We designed a simple brick building which, whilst respecting the existing St Mary's buildings surrounding the piazza, is a crisp, modern architectural statement maximising natural light and ventilation. Windows are strategically sized and placed in order to give the conference room visitors views of the chapel, piazza, trees and sky, rather than extract plants and large expanses of flat roof. Planning permission was granted in October 2006.
The Peter Burholt Partnership provided catering consultancy services, carrying out the detailed design of the kitchen. Their efficient planning provides a linear arrangement for food delivery, storage, preparation, cooking, serving and wash-up functions. Circulation space is therefore reduced to a minimum.
The Carbon Trust provided advice onachieving a low energy design for the kitchen and servery and have estimated that the new facility will save 101 tonnes of CO2 a year over a standard new-build design.
The scheme for refurbishing the single storey dining hall was constrained by the need to carry it out during one summer vacation. Our proposal was simply to remove all the walls, provide direct access to the outside, and create subtle zoning of seating areas through lighting, flooring and furniture selection.
The servery is characterised by a long slot cut into the roof with rooflights set against blue hygienic wall coverings and stainless steel counters faced with walnut veneer panels.
The first floor conference rooms are accessed from a timber veneer clad corridor and have automatically controlled high level clerestory windows to provide natural ventilation. The three rooms are divided by folding partitions to afford maximum flexibility of room size and are also serviced by a small kitchen.
Hutton Construction were appointed to deliver the project and started on site in November 2006. Whilst the new build progressed largely without any major issues, the existing building gave the project team some interesting challenges with a number of unforeseen problems.
Despite this, key milestones were achieved and the project was completed in February 2008 on programme and budget. Andy Potter, Jay Bourne, Francis Kevill and Roger Norris are to be congratulated for this achievement.
Modernisation works in N-Block continue with the provision of new toilets and the refurbishment of the Shannon Corridor which are programmed to take place this summer.
David Tucker, Project Architect
The refurbished refectory (below, top) and the Shannon Suite (below, bottom) was officially opened on Thursday 17th April. For more information about St Mary's conference facilities click here.
