jmarchitects are delighted to announce that the new 400 seat Margaret Fell Lecture Theatre was handed over on Friday 27th November 2020.

The lecture theatre is centrally located along the main pedestrian route through campus, known colloquially as the Spine. The project adjoins to the existing Faculty of Art and Social Sciences building, creating a much-needed large lecture theatre and ancillary spaces to deal with the recent growth of the university.

The building was designed by jmarchitects to AECB standards, making it one of the most environmentally conscious buildings on campus, with energy efficiency at the centre of its design. The building concept set out to provide an organic form on a tight site in turn delivering a landmark building which presented the opportunity to enhance the existing FASS building and energise the spine to the North side of the campus.

Andrew Rogers, Lead Architect said “Lancaster University were keen to push design boundaries to create a building that surpassed the usual benchmark for sustainability with a facility designed to operate at optimal energy efficiency. It is largely constructed using sustainable materials and extra consideration has been taken during the sourcing of materials to minimise the carbon footprint of the project.”

Helen Wood, Senior Project Manager (Lancaster University) said “I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big and sincere thank you to all of you involved with this project and who have put so much effort and dedication into producing what I am sure we all think is an outstanding piece of architecture and construction.”

Credit: Dave Shoreman & Virginia Herrera, jmarchitects Manchester