Retrofit for Purpose

case study 7

Percy Gee Building, Students’ Union, Leicester

University of Leicester

01 Nightclub at the students’ union

This is more than a strictly ‘retrofit’ project: it involved the partial redrawing of the building envelope to provide the large-scale spaces needed for modern university purposes which the 50-year-old building simply did not have; these new spaces make the existing accommodation work far better. At about half the cost of a new-build and generating energy savings into the future, the project demonstrates what a client with clear goals for design quality and sustainability can achieve when working with designers able to apply ...