Paper 3: The Enlarging of an Engineering Faculty on an Existing Site

The paper deals with the execution of a post-war plan to create new buildings for the Faculty of Engineering at Queen Mary College, one of the four Engineering Schools of London University.The buildings were to provide for an annual undergraduate intake of 150 together with sixty postgraduate students engaged in research.The site of the new buildings was adjacent to that of the existing College; however, it faced a main traffic route unlike the secluded existing site, so that special problems arose. Current building regulations affected the design and planning of the facilities and, in general, added to the cost. Noise and vibration arising internally had to be carefully considered. With the need to site some heavy laboratories on upper floors, special measures were needed to deal with the handling of equipment.To deal with unpredictable changes in the curricula, the maximum flexibility in the use of rooms was desirable and means for the easy installation of additional services at any time was built in.