Location Manchester Floor count 7 Floors 7 | Completed 1967 Opened 1967 | |
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Type Academic teaching and research Architect Fairhurst, Harry S. & Sons Similar Stephen Joseph Studio, Barnes Wallis Building, Faraday Building, Renold Building, Mathematics Tower - Manchester | ||
The Schuster Laboratory (also known as the Schuster Building) houses the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester and named after Sir Franz Arthur Friedrich Schuster. It is located on Brunswick Street, Manchester, within the Engineering and Physical Sciences faculty of the University. The building was designed by Fairhurst, Harry S. & Sons, of the Fairhurst Design Group, and was completed in 1967. The roof of the largest Lecture Theatre in the building has an abstract sculpture by Michael Piper on it. The building was refurbished in 2007.
Contents
Map of Schuster Laboratory, Manchester, UK
Architecture
The Schuster Laboratory was built during a time of expansion for the University, with the construction of a new Science Quadrangle. The Schuster Building was one of the later buildings constructed on this Quadrangle. The Electrical Engineering Laboratory, on the south side, was completed by 1954. This was followed by the Simon Engineering Laboratories on the southwest of the quadrangle, finished in mid-1962, and the Chemistry building on the southeast which was completed by October 1964. The Schuster Laboratories had been approved, and planning was nearly completed, by the end of August 1962.
Facilities
The building houses four large lecture rooms around the foyer on the ground floor, named after people who taught or carried out research in the department: Rutherford, Bragg, Blackett and Moseley. The rooms are centrally allocated by the University, rather than being solely used by the School. Rutherford is the largest of the lecture theatres, holding 258, while Bragg holds 150, Blackett holds 145 and Moseley holds 148. There is also a meeting room on the roof of one of the wings, called the Niels Bohr Common Room. The building also houses workshop facilities and teaching laboratories, and a small cafe on the ground floor, named "Error Bar" (previously known as "Eros Café").
Occupation
The building was purpose-built for the School of Physics and Astronomy. It currently contains the following groups:
The building used to house part of the Astronomy and Astrophysics group, as well as the Photon Physics Group, but these were relocated to the Alan Turing Building in September 2007.