It’s an unlikely place to build, atop a single-level cluster of laboratories linking two tower buildings. The terrace roof also functions as an open walkway leading from a carpark.

Darren Carnell was charged with the task of designing a learning suite above this structure. “Our starting point was to analyse the terrace and to determine what can we actually build on it,” he explains. The concrete structure was not intended to be loadbearing “so from day one, weight was the major issue.”

This ruled out brickwork despite its strong campus presence. “And yet I felt strongly that the building deserves some masonry. So when I saw Terraçade, I saw it had a synergy of proportions with the adjacent buildings.”

Carnell rejected fibre-cement sheeting because of its potential for impact damage at low levels. “I didn’t want this building to look tired in a very short period of time. We wanted a perimeter that sparkles, is interesting and robust.”