Retrofit/Reuse Spotlight: University of Nottingham – Castle Meadow Campus

Located in the heart of Nottingham, Castle Meadows was originally designed by Hopkins Architects as a government estate for HMRC.

Now, the campus is being re-imagined as a vibrant business and learning community, with the flagship ‘Central Building’ as its centrepiece.

A Grade II listed structure, its extraordinary tented roof remains one of the most complex fabric roofs in Europe and will be serving as the “living room of the campus” – a welcoming, multi-functional venue for meeting, study, events, and community life.

The Central Building is a striking piece of architectural ingenuity, with its dramatic tented roof giving it a powerful sense of character and place at the center of the former HMRC campus.

Yet in practical terms, this landmark building did not perform the role envisioned for it by the University. The main central volume was a multi-sport athletics court, while the two surrounding floors accommodated a mix of typical office amenities: a creche, a kitchen, and some office and meeting spaces.

While these perimeter areas were thermally controlled and insulated, the center volume was not. In colder months it became difficult to use, leaving the bulk of the interior under-occupied despite its architectural brilliance.

When the University of Nottingham acquired Castle Meadow, their ambition was to transform the Central Building into a vibrant, year-round venue for study, events, and community life.

The challenge lay in working within the constraints of its Grade II listing, sensitively adapting the complex structure to meet the needs of today’s users.

From the outset, the design team explored a range of strategies for how the Central Building might be adapted.

The chosen solution was deliberately light-touch: almost the entirety of the existing structure was preserved, with carefully crafted additions introduced to completely transform its performance.

Central to this was the insertion of a timber frame within the courtyard, designed to support a new glass box over the main hall – coordinated to ensure existing foundations could be utilised and no invasive rework of the existing ground floor slab was required.

This intervention also provided enclosure without obscuring the building’s most distinctive feature – the sweeping tented roof – and allowed natural light to continue flooding the interior.

Arriving at this outcome was the result of an extensive consultation process. Multiple options were work shopped, balancing conservation, usability, sustainability and the overall commercial envelope for the project.

Crucially, engagement extended beyond the client team to include student representatives, ensuring the voices of future users were embedded in decision-making.

This collaborative approach helped achieve a solution that not only respected the building’s heritage but also met the various practical needs of the community.

The new timber and glass structure has fundamentally transformed how the building can be used.

Where the ground floor was once dominated by an unheated basketball court, it is now a thermally controlled environment that supports study and co-working, flexible event and meeting spaces and community life throughout the year.

By embedding adaptability and flexibility into the design, the space can easily adjust to different uses day by day, and evolve as community needs change over time.

Uninterrupted views to the dramatic roof canopy have been preserved, with the design team working closely with engineers to ensure the glass was as clear and transparent as possible.

What was once an impressive but underused shell has been unlocked as a warm, versatile heart of the campus – a place where activity and connection can thrive in every season.

 

The transformation extends beyond the ground floor, creating new space above. On the upper level, the timber structure supports an outdoor terrace – creating a winter garden with lush natural planting and warm materials.

This space now allows users study, meet, and host events sheltered beneath the dramatic tented roof and bathed in natural light.

This solution also improves the connectivity of the whole site, with the first-floor terrace connecting the previously disjointed upper wings of the building, and with the glass box allowing visual connection down below to the main ground floor and upward to the striking roof line.

At the rear, a café was introduced, its facilities spilling naturally towards the canal. By orienting the building to a route of heavy footfall, this addition strengthened its role as both a campus hub and a welcoming threshold to the wider city.

At the front of the building, Deli Central further enhances this offer, providing high-quality food and beverage options for both campus users and the wider community. Partnering with local suppliers ensures a sustainable, quality-driven product and encourages more people to venture onto and engage with the campus.

The retrofit of the Central Building was intentionally light touch, with a clear focus on reusing what was already available. Panels were resprayed, partitions were reused, and all foundations and structure were retained – delivering significant carbon savings.

The most substantial intervention was the new timber frame, introduced to support the glass roof and first-floor terrace.

Timber was selected not only for its sustainability credentials, but also for being light enough to work with the existing foundations. Beneath the former sports pitch, the original piles still had residual capacity. By carefully aligning the new columns with these piles, the team avoided the need for new foundations – another strategic move that unlocked major embodied carbon savings.

The only major invasive restoration was the renewal of the roof’s fabric. With the original material at the end of its natural life, the team retained the existing steel frame while replacing the fabric with a more durable, more recyclable alternative. This intervention preserves the iconic tented profile while extending the roof’s lifespan well into the future.

The result is a building that has been fundamentally re-energised, preserving the ingenuity of its original design while preparing it for decades of new use.

While the retrofit team were meticulous in their approach to lower the environmental footprint, equal care was also given to shape how the spaces would feel, and what type of culture they would sustain. From the outset, the ambition was to craft a true “living room” for the campus—a space that feels welcoming, social, and restorative.

In addition to being an ideal choice for its structural benefits and climate credentials, timber was also a perfect material candidate for its natural warmth, deliberately contrasting with the steel, concrete, glass, and fabric of the listed structure.

Landscaping in the wintergarden and planting in the interiors were similarly used help to soften the environment, boosting the warm natural feel and shaping more intimate areas within the larger volume. Furniture and finishes were also carefully selected, using materials rich in texture and warm in colour.

Together, these elements bring the project full circle: a transformation that is low-impact for the planet, high-impact for the occupants, and repositions the building as the vibrant, people-focused heart of the campus.

By retaining the structure, introducing only what was necessary, and focusing on performance as well as experience, the Central Building project delivers transformational change with a significantly limited carbon footprint.

It offers a clear model for how listed buildings can be reimagined: not by overwriting their identity, but by amplifying their most extraordinary qualities, and finding sensitive solutions to adapt them to new uses.

Work: Castle Meadow Campus at The University of Nottingham