This project is shortlisted in the Post-occupancy in Practice and Materials and Resource Management category of the inaugural Open City Stewardship Awards. Find out more: open-city.org.uk/stewardship-awards

The Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia is an exemplar in sustainable design, and a testament to the collaboration between a skilled design and construction team, visionary client, and proactive estates department. With sustainability at the core of this project, the building has demonstrated how design can positively impact the local economy, people and the planet, both now and in the future.

One of the most ambitious of Architype’s projects, the practice designed the building following a successful masterplan of the university’s estate – which includes iconic architecture from Denys Lasdun and Norman Foster, as well as the Grade II listed Earlham Park, which became a key focus of the landscape strategy when planning the neighbouring Enterprise Centre.

The building’s most distinctive materiality is the facade’s innovative prefabricated thatched straw panels, which were tested and refined a year before construction, with the straw for the panels grown throughout the design period. The scheme also employs bio-based materials across 70% of its final design. This includes an all timber superstructure which does not rely on carbon-intense concrete and steel, and was sourced from nearby Thetford Forest as part of a local procurement strategy that saw most materials found within 100 miles of the site. The building also makes use of existing materials, with existing Lasdun chemistry desks recycled into cladding, and the retention of the existing floor slab.

Since the building’s completion in 2015, Architype have been studying it through a post-occupancy evaluation process which has allowed them to create a methodology that could be used across subsequent projects. The learnings on whole-life carbon analysis has led to the creation of ECCOlab, Architype’s award-winning cost and carbon calculation tool which aims to help the wider industry to meet the challenge of delivering zero carbon buildings.