Here’s why the Uni of Salford building once named UK’s ‘best new build’ will be demolished

The Centenary Building at the University of Salford is set to be demolished, despite once being dubbed the “UK’s best building” in 1996.

The building, that was once considered “sophisticated” as well as “dynamic [and] modern”, housed the faculty of art and design at the University of Salford when it first opened in 1996.

However, despite winning Britain’s most prestigious architectural award only 30 years ago, it has been left empty for the past eight years and will now be demolished to make way for a housing development, BBC reports.

The Centenary Building in 2008 (via Google Maps)

The university explains that this removal is due to “ageing infrastructure” which has resulted in the building no longer “meeting modern standards”, but some architects have argued that repurposing the building for another use should be considered before a complete flattening.

Eddy Rhead, co-founder of the Modernist Society based in Manchester says there is a “lot of discontent” regarding the demolition, explaining how “in this day and age, we can’t keep demolishing and rebuilding – it can be reused”. He added that the demolition is “lazy and unimaginative and, without sounding too dramatic, morally wrong for such a young building”.

He added how “from an architectural and sustainability point of view, [knocking the building down] is a terrible message to send out”. Explaining that the building was once designed to be used by thousands of students, he said “iit was clearly valued once”.

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The building was designed by Manchester-based architect Stephen Hodder, under a moderately cheap budget of £4 million. It was praised for being a “dynamic, modern and sophisticated exercise in steel, glass and concrete” by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) after its construction in 1996, and was given their inaugural Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building in the same year.

Mr Hodder has stated that he is disappointed by the decision to knock down the building and that “with concerns about climate change and carbon, we should be going great lengths to see how we can adapt existing buildings”. He also told the Architect’s Journal: “I simply cannot support the demolition of a building that is only 30 years old”.

The Riba board chairman Jack Pringle has also weighed in on the fate of The Centenary Building, stating how “there must be a case for all Stirling Prize winning buildings to be considered for a listing”, so they can be protected under law.

But for now, Mr Rhead credits The Centenary Building’s location on “prime real estate” as the reason why the prestige of winning such a prize “doesn’t give any protection from cold-hearted commercialism”.

Despite these complaints, the university and Salford City Council plan to build the new Adelphi Village neighbourhood in the building’s place, to accommodate for 900 new homes amid a huge demand for housing. The university has also said how “careful consideration” has been taken into the building’s history but ultimately it “has now been vacant for a third of its built life”.

Featured image via Google Maps