About the Nucleus

The building was built to ease the capacity constraint which prevents King’s Buildings-based Schools from growing. It is a core element of the College’s teaching strategy, which supports an improved offer to first-year students who currently have teaching split between the Central Area and King’s Buildings.  It is an enabler of growth and expansion of the College. It was also designed to provide much-needed communal space and a focal point where all disciplines can meet and collaborate as well as to provide a greater opportunity for positive interaction with the local community.

The Nucleus is governed by a collective, featuring College students and building users, to ensure it responds to the needs of our community. It also allows us to host events and exhibitions throughout the year and is available at weekends and evenings for local community and other student activity.

A large part of the Nucleus’s construction occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst adhering to the construction programme, constructors Mclaughlin and Harvey safeguarded their workforce and the community through comprehensive measures implemented on-site, including daily testing and social distancing measures to limit transmission. One positive outcome of this situation was that noise and disruption to students and staff was reduced due to a majority of study and work being done remotely during the construction phase.

The building design incorporates several sustainability initiatives and achieves the highest environmental certification rating of EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) – an A rating. As part of the construction process of the building substructure, 200 tonnes of demolition material from the building that previously stood on the site was recycled and reused. The former School of Informatics bike shelter has also been refurbished and used at the Nucleus. In addition, a local social enterprise was used to take excess wood from the site and utilise it in various ways, including making furniture they could sell. 

A mixed mode approach was adopted in the study spaces that enables the areas to be mechanically ventilated in winter, ensuring good indoor air quality and comfort conditions are maintained whilst minimising ventilation heat loss through high-efficiency heat recovery within the air handling plant. It was deemed that a large photovoltaic array would deliver the best payback and carbon emissions reductions generating an estimated annual electrical yield of 64,000 kWh.