Lasdun Wall – the rebirth of a brutalist icon

Few university buildings in the UK carry the architectural and cultural weight of Lasdun Wall at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in the mid‑1960s, the brutalist concrete structure – along with the neighbouring “Ziggurats” student accommodation – are among the standout features that defined UEA’s campus as one of the most important post-war university developments in Britain.

The Grade II-listed Lasdun Wall was constructed more than 60 years ago, with adaptability built into its design. Today, that flexibility is being tested as the university seeks to transform the building into modern teaching spaces and research laboratories, while dramatically improving its environmental performance.

For UEA, the project is a cornerstone of a wider campus investment strategy and a critical contributor to its carbon reduction ambitions. For principal contractor Mace, appointed to the £89.99m first phase in late 2024, it is both a technical and cultural challenge on an exceptional scale.

“This is a large‑scale retrofit and refurbishment – the largest post‑war extension to any Grade II-listed building in the UK,” says Ed Wild FCIOB, project director at Mace. “It’s the biggest construction project currently under way in Norfolk, and it has huge local and national interest.”

The project will not be measured against an environmental rating system, but UEA director of estates and facilities Stephen Wells MCIOB says the redevelopment of Lasdun Wall “aligns with the university’s targets of cutting net zero emissions, 80% of scope 1 and 2 by 2030, and 100% by 2045.”

Lasdun Wall stretches across the UEA campus on a roughly east to west axis and comprises four interlinked buildings. This first phase of in its transformation will upgrade Building 3, while Buildings 4, 5, and 6 remain operational.

The revamped Building 3 will be a four‑storey structure with two basement levels, plus an additional roof‑deck storey to accommodate two floors of MEP, bringing its overall height to 28m above ground level.

With three full-height extensions to the north elevation, the redeveloped building will have 14,300 sq m of floor space – an increase of 3,000 sq m – providing more than 500 rooms for teaching, wet laboratories and circulation spaces. It will support occupancy for around 2,070 students, alongside academic and research staff.

Structurally, the project includes both the reengineering of the existing concrete structure and the construction of substantial new elements – some 943 cu m of concrete will be poured for the flat slabs in the extension, which will be sited on 125 new piles with a combined length of 1.9km.

Mace is also building three new rising structures within and alongside the original footprint, tied into the historic frame.

Before Mace arrived on site, UEA appointed demolition contractors to carry out an extensive enabling and strip‑out phase. The original building was taken back to shell and core, removing fit‑out and services to expose the raw concrete structure.

This was intended to derisk the main contract, but inevitably given the age of the building, there were a few unknowns that materialised once Mace took formal possession of the site on 25 November 2024.

Historic backfill and unexpected foundation conditions – including large buried masses of concrete and discrepancies between as‑built drawings and reality – forced a rethink of piling strategies and sequencing.

“We found big lumps of material around eight metres down,” says Wild. “Some of the original foundations were not where the tender benchmark data and drawings said they were located. That completely changes how loads are transferred, and suddenly you can’t cut into the concrete frame where you planned to cut, and the build sequence has to be revised.”

This halted progress in January 2025, while Mace worked out a solution with the client.

“We carried out internal deep depth probing investigations to find out what was in the ground, relocated proposed pile formations by structural redesign where necessary, and radically resequenced the build sequence and programme,” explains Wild.

“This included resequencing how we cut into the existing frame on multiple work fronts to mitigate the clients programme delay and bringing in additional temporary works to structurally stabilise the building on a project wide scale.”

The central challenge of Lasdun Wall lies in its concrete frame. Built more than six decades ago, the structure uses a variety of slab types, including “hollow pot and beam” and monolithic concrete, all within the same building.

“It’s a game of two halves,” says Wild. “You’ve got the new‑build elements, where you’re the master of your own destiny. Then you’ve got this 60‑year‑old structure made of varying slab types, which makes it incredibly hard to distribute materials, load the building and maintain structural integrity. Some slabs are only around 50mm thick.

“We’re introducing major mechanical and electrical systems, heavy equipment and an occupancy of just over 2,000 people. Achieving structural integrity, fire compartmentation and load capacity across all of that is hugely challenging. But this is what Mace has taken on as part of our contractual obligations in this design and build contract and complexity is what Mace do best.”

To service the new laboratories and teaching spaces, the existing building requires extensive cutting and carving. In total, 26 risers and 74 major penetrations are being formed through the existing frame, a process Wild describes as turning the building into “Swiss cheese”.

“When you start taking away structural integrity across multiple levels with large holes, the whole building twists and turns,” he explains. “Understanding how to stabilise the structure while creating those openings, and doing it safely and in sequence, has been one of the hardest parts of the job.”

That became even harder when the below ground risk became apparent and forced a reworking of the foundation design.

Mace’s solution was a complex temporary works solution to stabilise and strengthen the structure during the structural remodelling, including false stabilising shear walls on each floor, which went all the way up to the soffit and mimicked permanent structural stability and stress transfer.

A temporary works “Christmas tree”, as Wild calls it, involved fitting heavy bracing on lower floors, which reduced in quantity in the higher floors, as the structural stresses lessened.

“In total, we installed 364 straps and props with more than 1,000 bolted connections,” Wild says. “The building had to believe it was in its final, fully supported state while we re‑engineered it across 70% of its internal floor plate size.”

The temporary works solution was installed, monitored and then fully removed by January 2026, by which time the project was back on an aligned programme with the rising structures nearing completion.

Concrete repair is central to both the structural and heritage strategy.

The “Lasdun” concrete spandrel panels are a defining feature of the façade and are being carefully retained and refurbished. Each panel weighs up to two tonnes and varies subtly in size and detail.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, these panels were structurally secured with temporary strapping because of concerns they may come loose in high winds before the redevelopment works started,” Wells explains.

For this project, Mace has developed a bespoke structural solution to tie the panels into the concrete frame. Some 364 L‑shaped steel clamps, each weighing around 40kg, were installed internally to secure the panels, then the temporary straps were removed.

Once the panels were secured, the cleaning and repairs could begin.

Mace picked specialist restoration contractor Szerelmey, who Wild had personally worked with previously on Mace heritage projects, to carry out extensive cleaning, testing, colour‑matching and repairs.

Szerelmey started the process with a sample panel, trialling different cleaning techniques. “We wanted something that looked clean, but not brand new,” says Wild. “In the end we chose a high-pressure hot‑water wash, with no chemicals.”

“For the repairs, we did multiple colour matches, tap tests, tried out various bonding agents, to make sure that what we applied was the correct mix and didn’t just crack away. The actual finish will weather quickly over time, so it will blend in and colour match the existing concrete.

“The whole process of colour matching, creating samples and the repairs has taken 12 months to conclude on the exact method which the customer is satisfied with.”

Internally, exposed concrete walls and soffits are being retained wherever possible, with fire‑protective finishes applied in some instances to meet modern standards.

“Other interior heritage features, including exposed concrete columns, Terrazzo flooring and timber balustrades, have been boarded over during the refurbishment works and will be part of the finished building,” says Wells. “As this is Grade II-listed, not Grade II*, we are not automatically required to preserve all interior details, but we have decided that all features with heritage significance will be retained.”

One of Mace’s most visible interventions is the replacement of the original single‑glazed windows. In total, 1,092 panes of glass across 156 window bays are being replaced with a bespoke, like‑for‑like Raynaer aluminium system.

“The process was long and carefully thought through,” says Wild. “We needed an aesthetically matching replacement, but with modern performance – U‑values, solar glare control, acoustic performance – that meets the 2025 specification.”

The new units are heavier than the originals, requiring additional steelwork to distribute loads back into the historic concrete frame. The secondary structure will be hidden behind internal wall insulation build‑ups.

The windows are being manufactured locally by Norwich Aluminium, just a few miles from the campus, one of several local firms used by Mace on the contract.

“That reduces embodied carbon from transport, but it also supports and builds a local supply chain,” says Wild.

At the heart of the project is a reuse‑first philosophy. By retaining and upgrading the existing concrete frame rather than demolishing and rebuilding, Mace estimates the project will achieve an 85% carbon reduction over the building’s life attributable to the reuse of the primary structural elements.

Other retained elements include the original Garland warm roof system, which has been refurbished and reused, avoiding significant waste and transport impacts.

When Mace gained access to the site, it removed around 1km of site hoarding and reused much of this timber for enclosures, access ramps and wildlife habitats within the project boundary.

To service the building’s new requirements, and particularly the wet laboratories that occupy 50% of the space, Mace is installing what Wild describes as a “state of the art M&E ‘brain’”.

“The building was intended for arts and humanities, not research labs,” he says. “So we’re having to coordinate a 2027‑standard, state-of-the-art M&E specification in a frame that was never designed to be this highly serviced.”

Services are predominantly distributed top‑down, with the laboratories on the upper floors and the teaching space on the ground and first floor level. The two storeys of roof level M&E plant will serve the laboratories and 107 fume cupboards, along with complex ventilation, power and control systems.

Planning conditions tightly controlled the appearance of this plant structure. “Height and visibility were meticulously thought through so that key views of Lasdun Wall’s historic profile are preserved,” Wild says.

To manage the project’s complexity, Mace is deploying a fully federated BIM model, coordinating all architectural, structural and MEP inputs and resolving clashes digitally before work reaches site.

The team is also using modular M&E components, fabricated off site to improve speed and safety during installation.

“On a constrained, live campus site, anything that reduces time, congestion and rework is a big win,” Wild says.

Lasdun Wall sits at the heart of a busy university campus, home to around 16,500 students. Managing interfaces with staff, students and visitors has been a constant consideration.

One simple but effective innovation has been Wild’s “fast facts” communication card, issued to everyone working on site.

“It provides clear, consistent information about the project, programme and client contacts, ensuring that anyone approached by students or staff can give accurate answers,” he explains. “It gives confidence to the client and credibility to their communications. And it stops misinformation spreading.”

Now around a third of the way through the build programme, Lasdun Wall is steadily being transformed. Workers on site currently number 163 and will rise to a peak of 453. “We’re on track for practical completion in early summer 2027,” says Wild.

This is just the start of a programme of redevelopment works at the UEA campus, which will include dealing with legacy reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) issues – present in the Ziggurats but not Lasdun Wall – and retrofitting the whole estate. “This first project in the programme will extend the life of Building 3 by at least 50 years, and provides added asset value,” says Wells.

“UEA has this rich 20^th Century architectural history and we’re demonstrating here how deep retrofits are possible even in complex post‑war heritage buildings.”