Regional College of Art

Built between 1972 and 1974 and designed by the office of Frederick Gibberd and Partners, this boutique school, the Regional College of Art, has a distinctly municipal feel. Its simple, yet bold, geometry and modest finishes afford a clarity of structure and detail that decisively delineate the functions of the space. Originally home to print, ceramics, sculpture, design, painting and drawing, the building is now home to the Hull School of Architecture. The scheme was composed of two clear blocks, connected by a first floor level bridgelink and enclosing a sculpture courtyard to the rear. The smaller, orthogonal block housed a gallery, library and lecture theatre and the longer block with a large area of monopitch glazed roof was home to the studios and workshops. The structure was primarily formed from reinforced concrete, with a secondary steel system to carry the glazed north light roof. The walls were built of a non-loadbearing Forticrete buff coloured blockwork. The project architect, Michael H. Coombes described the open planning as allowing ‘a high degree of flexibility of use should the curricula change in the future’. This appears to have been a successful strategy as the buildings remain largely intact in 2018. Stores and other functions with no daylight demand were placed deep in the plan to leave the maximum possible area free for windows to studios and workshops. The first floor of the studio block is a mezzanine gallery that overlooks the spaces below and allows good visual connections through the interior. The unfussy and robust character of the scheme are part of its charm and its survival. A planning application was approved in May 2018 for a major refurbishment.