Coffey Architect uses perforated aluminium to design Norwich technology hub

At this digital technology education complex designed by London studio Coffey Architects for City College Norwich in Norfolk, white perforated metal panels generate a sensation of "light and airiness."

The Digi-Tech Factory, including robotics laboratories, digital studios, classrooms, and support areas, houses the college's technology, engineering, and design courses in one facility.

Coffey Architects employed off-the-shelf components for the structure, including an exposed steel frame, composite panels, and glass-encased by a perforated aluminium shell, in the spirit of industrial architecture.

The aluminium shell defines a covered outdoor plaza and terraces surrounding the structure, which is raised one level on steel columns and placed away from the building's thermal envelope.

The terraces lead to a vast atrium with skylights in the sawtooth roof of the building. The Digi-Tech Factory's teaching areas are arranged around the atrium, with windows that break up the perforated screen and provide views of the surrounding campus. Panels cover certain windows, creating a play of light and shadow during the day and silhouettes at night.

"Light manipulation is a central principle of [our] design practice, often explored, as here, through the use of an external screen to provide light, texture, variation and environmental control," said the studio.

"In this case the building's panels play with both nature and artificial light depending on the time of day. By day, natural light is diffused through the panels into the interior, and by night, light from the spaces within the building activates the façade,” added the studio.

Light can move through the atrium and create visual linkages between areas thanks to voids on each level and full-height internal windows.

"As you move through to the upper floors, the feelings of light and airiness continue despite a small footprint, achieved through a combination of light wells in the roof at each end of the corridors and moments of double-height spaces on each floor," added the studio.

Internal hallways, as well as the covered spaces around the building, have been built to foster socialisation between classes. The building's glass ground floor continues into a corrugated metal-clad block of labs in the back, which descends into and overlooks a gently sloping lawn.

Keeping with the industrial character, the structure and services of Digi-Tech Factory have been left exposed on the interior, enabling students and employees to observe how the facility operates while also allowing for future expansions or adjustments. The exterior's white is continued through to the internal steelwork and walls, with brilliant yellow entrances standing out.

Phil Coffey, an architect, started Coffey Architects in London in 2005. At King's Cross, where it built a three-story office building encased in perforated aluminium panels, the firm took a similar technique to experiment with light and texture.