Middlesex University Topping Out
University celebrates as Hendon’s newest building reaches its highest point
Representatives from Middlesex University, design team consultants and builder Carillion gathered in April for a tour of the University's brand new Hatchcroft building, which is situated on The Burroughs in Hendon. A special 'Topping Out' ceremony was held on Hatchcroft's roof terrace.
To mark the occasion, Russell Lane of main contractor Carillion presented the Chair of the Middlesex Board of Governors, Lorna Cocking, with a ceremonial silver hammer. It is just under a year since the building work started on the site located between the University’s College Building and the Town Hall, on The Burroughs.
Middlesex Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Driscoll spoke enthusiastically about how well the building programme had progressed. “It has run to time, and to budget and will be ready for students to arrive in September 2008. Hatchcroft joins the University’s Sheppard Library and glazed Quadrangle on this hugely improved Hendon campus. Architecturally, it fits well on The Burroughs as it’s in keeping with both the Town Hall and the Fire Station. And we’re fully reinstating the Grove Parkland along the side of the building so that everyone in Hendon can enjoy this green space,” he said.
This £30 million building is 14.3 metres high, arranged over three floors, with an overall size of 5,500 square metres. Inside there are two lecture theatres, one on the ground floor that seats 250 students and another on the first floor for 150 students. There are two wings for laboratories – wet labs are in the West wing and they will house all biomedical academic teaching, while the dry labs are located in the East wing that faces The Burroughs. The dry labs will house psychology, computing science and sport-related academic teaching.
Middlesex University is proud that Hatchcroft will be the very first educational building in the borough of Barnet to use renewable energy sources for winter heating, as well as to cool the building during the summer months. Innovative ground source heat pumps were dropped 60 metres into the Grove Parkland ground, which will allow CO2 emissions to be reduced by a significant 12 per cent. The roof has solar hot water panels using the sun’s renewable energy to provide hot water throughout the building, and a natural ventilation system has been installed to reduce the building’s temperature by allowing cool air to circulate overnight during the summer.
With these kinds of green initiatives, the University has high hopes of achieving the very best BREEAM rating, that of ‘excellent’. Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) is a voluntary scheme that aims to quantify and reduce the environmental burdens of buildings by rewarding those designs that take positive steps to minimise their environmental impact.
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Topping out’ is an ancient Scandinavian religious practice of placing a tree on top of a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits of ancestors who had been displaced. Today the ceremony is a celebration of reaching the highest point of a building and an opportunity
to celebrate and say thank you. Middlesex Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Driscoll thanked the team onsite at Hatchcroft, the senior managers at Carillion, BPR Architects, Middlesex’s programme manager Andrew Neville-Rolfe and the University’s colleagues at Barnet Council.
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