# Roland Levinsky Building

The Roland Levinsky Building is the University of Plymouth's flagship arts, cultural and teaching facility, completed in 2007. It is located at the south of the university campus opposite the Drake Circus Shopping Centre.

## Background

The Roland Levinsky Building is the university's flagship building, hosting open days and large events. It is home to the Faculty of Arts.
The building is clad with copper sheets in a seamed-cladding technique, is nine storeys high and has 13,000 square metres (140,000 sq ft) of floor space.
The building contains a large four-storey atrium, open-plan studios and office space, as well as a number of specialist teaching laboratories.
It was named in memory of Professor Roland Levinsky, academic researcher in biomedicine and vice-chancellor of the University of Plymouth, who was killed in an accident on New Year's Day 2007 after being touched by a live power cable that fell near his home during a storm.
The building has been featured in many studies, including one that showed the possibility to simulate buildings’ predicted energy usage.

## History

The building was designed by architects, Henning Larsen with Building Design Partnership. It has an overall modern and industrial theme. The design brief for the project called for a building that would give iconic status to the university and prove an inspiring symbol of the artistic and economic regeneration of the region.
Construction of the building began in early 2004 and was completed in August 2007 with the final construction costs reaching £34m.
During excavations, it was discovered that a leat was running through the proposed foundations of the building which could cause delays in construction. However, the building was completed as planned on schedule.
An open day was held on 9 August 2007 to showcase the building to local construction professionals, with the building being fully opened in September 2007.
In 2014, an expansion to the building was completed, called The House. It is not physically connected to the building but houses courses in the same faculty as the main building, and is designed to look very similar to the Roland Levinsky Building.
In 2022 during a reshuffle of rooms in the building, the Levinsky Hall was opened as a new venue for classical music performances.
In the same year, the ground floor of the main atrium was also renovated, the space was redesigned by students at the university. The space was designed to accommodate everyday student life and popup events.

## Teaching spaces

The building contains design studios, art studios, computer labs, and lecture theatres as well as the university's Digital Fabrication and Immersive Media Laboratories and architecture school.
The building also has a senate room designed by Rock Townsend. It was originally a classroom but was renovated into a senate-like chamber used for debates and talks.

### The Arts Institute

The building has a large portion of its space dedicated to The Arts Institute including the Levinsky Gallery which takes up the lower floors in the tower of the building, the Levinsky Hall, and the Jill Craigie Cinema, which is a one screen cinema used by the film students
Many Arts Institute events have been held in the building, including the Sunny Symphony event, where sensors connected to a computer allowed the sunrise to compose music. The University of Plymouth Contemporary Music Festival uses the building as its main venue as well.

### i-DAT

The Roland Levinsky Building also houses i-DAT, the university's Open Research Lab for experimentation with creative technology.

## Reception

The building was featured in the top 20 university buildings list after its completion, and has been featured in an article as one of the world's most "spectacular" university buildings.

### Awards

| Year | Award | Result | Ref |
| 2007 | Best New Building - Abercrombie Architectural Design Awards | Won | |
| 2008 | Structural Awards - Institution of Structural Engineers | Won | |

### Student protest

In 2007, students protested against the building when the fine art, 3D design and graphic design courses moved to Plymouth from the university's Exeter campus to consolidate the Faculty of Arts. Students said that studio space was cramped, and the ventilation system makes oil-based paints hazardous to use. The architects of the building blamed the university, saying that the building was never designed to accommodate so many departments.

## Incidents

On 15 October 2022 the building was evacuated due to a bomb threat. A lecturer at the university said that they were told there was a bomb hidden inside a piano in the Levinsky Hall where an event was taking place. It was later confirmed to be a hoax created by youths attempting to disrupt the event.
In April 2023, a cat from Ipswich climbed the building and got stuck on a ledge. The cat was rescued by a student calling a window cleaning company to get the cat down as the university's estates team did not have the correct type of ladder to reach it safely.