Porphyrios Associates brings classical sensibilities to the Bay Campus for the University of Swansea. Report by Ian Latham

Buildings.

Words
Ian Latham
Photos
Neil Perry

State investment in higher education during the post-war era was sound, it was argued, because graduates tended to pay more tax. Since then, the dramatic increase in student numbers and realignments in funding sources have changed the terms of the debate – and once universities had come to terms with education as a market and realised they could be powerful economic drivers, so they learned to wield influence. At the same time, the intense competition to attract fee-paying students has led universities to look inwards, and campus improvement and expansion has become a hallmark of the sector.

Swansea University’s attractive Singleton Park campus was one of the UK’s first purpose-built campuses. Opened in 1948 on the west side of the city, the seaside site was constrained by geography and its neighbours, and by the start of this century the 20-hectare campus had been outgrown. To expand its 16,000 student cohort, the university therefore had to develop a second campus elsewhere. Fortuitously, a large coastal site three miles east of the city centre came onto the scene when multinational energy company BP gifted the land to the university as part of its local exit strategy.

A clock tower marks the corner of the residential quarter next to Tenant Place.

In 2009, a two-day workshop hosted by the university and the Prince’s Foundation brought together participants from the local authorities, developer St Modwen, BP and architect/planner Porphyrios Associates. From this consensus of interests, the £450m Swansea Bay campus has emerged, the first phase of which was opened in July by the Prince of Wales. While the university is the immediate beneficiary, some estimates put the long-term economic impact at £3bn, including the generation of 11,000 jobs.

Just as the site came blessed with a west-facing aspect across sand dunes to the sea, and an adjacent SSSI-protected landscape, so it was disadvantaged by contaminants from its former use as a fuel store and a potential flood risk (the projected off-shore energy-generating Tidal Lagoon could reduce this). Access was good, however, with the busy Fabian Way forming the north boundary on its way to the city centre.

Buildings.

The Library and Great Hall are located on the south side of the campus, taking advantage of views across the bay.

Having developed an intellectually rigorous approach to masterplanning that has been tested and refined on large-scale built projects such as King’s Cross Central in London and Pitiousa on the Greek island of Spetses, and within academic precincts at Princeton, Cambridge and Oxford, Porphyrios Associates was a prudent choice for the commission.

The masterplan is generated as much by a public realm of interconnected urban spaces and green areas as by urban blocks, lending an underlying sense of structure, orientation and place. Within this, character and diversity is an implicit priority, and contrasts of formal and intimate, lively and quiet, hard and soft have been sought wherever possible with minimal means. The masterplan is orthogonally aligned with Fabian Way to the north, but adjusts in deference to the coastline and to open up vistas and spaces. Some of these subtle shifts have been ironed out in execution, but enough remain to contribute unexpected vistas and lend a picturesque rhythm to the setting.

Buildings.

Porphyrios Associates’ Great Hall occupies centre stage in the masterplan.

The campus is conceived as a ‘city’, with ‘public’ buildings (Great Hall, Library) plus ‘collegiate’ (student residences), ‘finger’ (forthcoming low-rise residences next to the coast) and ‘industrial’ (departmental) blocks. Generally, the blocks step down from 10 storeys on the north side to two towards the sea. The principal parti comprises a central area around a main square and an east-west ‘High Street’ with an arcaded frontage. The residences are placed to the west (with future phases due to extend the campus further), and the engineering and industry buildings are mostly to the east.

The main square – Tenant Place – gathers all the major routes, and is addressed to the south by the Great Hall, to the west and east by the School of Management and Innovation Hub respectively (both designed by Hopkins), and to the north west by the residential quarter, its corner anchored by a landmark clock tower. While the main square must wait for more enclosing buildings to properly cohere, the residential quarter already feels impressively complete.

Buildings.

The Library is located south-east of the Great Hall.

As at King’s Cross, the developmental guidelines and parameters for the Bay Campus were embedded in the planning consent as a legal document. This has undoubtedly contributed to the project’s coherent qualities, and it should help ensure a long-term commitment to the masterplan.

Buildings.

Given that the Bay Campus has been built very quickly and to a modest budget, the constructional standard is both high and consistent. This is a tribute not only to contractors Vinci and Leadbitters, but also all the other parties and consultants involved. Porphyrios Associates in particular has brought an acute awareness of where differences can be incorporated without significantly increasing costs, and this has helped temper the default megablocks of fast-track prefabricated construction systems with a human scale.

Much of the residential quarter is built using a prefabricated concrete system, and most of the other buildings are steel-framed. Porphyrios Associates’ projects are clad in brickwork and reconstituted stone panels, while Hopkins’ are more conventionally attired in cladding and glazing systems.

Buildings.

Hopkins was responsible for the Innovation Hub and Manufacturing Facility.

There is no small achievement in imbuing the Swansea Bay campus with a sense that it has evolved over some decades. Because the masterplan is underpinned by a consistent rationale, everything feels in the right place, and the spaces and routes are unforced. The fact that this has been achieved using cutting-edge construction programming and prefabrication technologies makes it all the more noteworthy.

Additional Images

Download Drawings

Credits

Masterplanner and architect
Porphyrios Associates
Architect
Hopkins
Civil engineer
Atkins
Structural engineer
Rodgers Leask
M&E engineer
McCann & Partners
Quantity surveyor
Prosurv Consult
Client
Swansea University

Reconstituted stone
Techrete
Bricks
Ibstock
Windows
APiC
Curtain walling
Kawneer
Paving
Aggregate Industries