Nelson Mandela University - Lecture Theatre
The NMU lecture theatre is one of the buildings that act as a symbol on the Nelson Mandela University Campus. It formed part of the January 2005 merging of the PE Technikon, the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) and the Port Elizabeth Campus of Vista University (Vista PE). Strauch Voster Architects designed the building and the construction ended in 2010.
When these campuses joined in 2005, a vast amount of student numbers started to increase rapidly. Because of this, the NMU Lecture Theatre was designed and built. Today the building acts as Lecture halls for South Campus Classes (primarily for teaching), during non-academic periods the building serves as a venue for conferencing activities. The new design consists of three primarily lecture halls; a 200, 250 and a 500 seater lecture hall.
The building is centrally located between four pedestrian routes, the building design allowed for four main entrances Including this grass area that was designed to act as a meeting area for students when they arrive at the building:
According to Herholdt, 2013, the concept of the design was to design a building that concerns the improvement of creativity and to create a comfortable and pleasant environment to support the process of knowledge and learning.
This is the 500-seater lecture theatre. It consists of good scale and good sound articulation. The seats are at an angle ensuring the student to have a good sight of their Lecturer and while a class gets to be executed:
The entrance foyer is large enough to accommodate 500+ students before a lecture starts:
The entrance foyer is well equipped with good sound and noise reduction acoustic panels. If one observes the surface materials one can clearly see that the majority of the finishes are reflective surfaces and that the Acoustic panels will absorb all the reverberation to this:
In my opinion, even though I don't obtain classes at this building, I know that the building is quite successful and fits well into the large NMU context.
Bibliography:
Herholdt, A., 2013. Coastal Contemporary: 2000 - 2013. Port Elizabeth: DOT Matrix Publications
