We are pleased to welcome back Evans Vettori who will be presenting their work on the new Dryden Enterprise and Innovation Centre at NTU.

“The Dryden Enterprise Centre is a new home for enterprise at Nottingham Trent University. The building is designed for start-up businesses and SME’s. The university provides a range of business support for innovation and growth to the businesses who seek to benefit from a relationship with the University.

The building located on a small area of land, left over from the construction of the Universities Dryden Building, built in 1976. The existing building is a robust brick and pre-cast concrete building deeply modelled with large concrete surrounds and strip glazing originally designed as a library. The design and materials for the new building aim to be sympathetic and complimentary to character of the existing building with the use of brick and concrete.

Surrounding the site on the east and north are mature London plane trees.  These added to the challenge of a tight site as their root protection zones needed to be retained.  The building however response to this task and the character and shape has been born out of its function. The building has had to duck and dive around existing windows and tree roots resulting a building form that curves in and out and that cantilevers over.  Due to the close proximity of the trees in the office spaces you feel like you sit within the tree canopies offering shading in summer and the top floor offers spectacular views of Nottingham city skyline.”

Photographs below by Martine Hamilton Knight.