Medical Biology Centre, Queen’s University Belfast

This teaching centre is located within the Queen’s University’s Medical Biology Centre (MBC), on the Lisburn Road, where the University’s faculties that constitute Health Sciences are centred.

The project involved the provision of new centrally located teaching accommodation, primarily responding to the need to rationalise the existing multi-site provision. The building contains a new 330 seat lecture theatre, and 11 teaching spaces of varying size, capable of accommodating between 20 and 100 students. In addition to fulfilling the teaching requirement, the Centre also establishes a new main entrance of the complex and provides clear and easy access to the surrounding accommodation.

The Centre sits at the base of the tower block, stretching between the two flanking wings. It is separated from the tower by a top lit atrium, bringing natural light deep into the building. Whilst the Centre’s arrangement responds to the Elmwood Avenue vista, and the simple flat roofed forms of its neighbours, it is consciously designed as a contemporary insertion, quite different in elevational treatment, thereby announcing itself as the new gateway to the complex.

The MBC received a commendation in RSUA Design Awards 2006.