Alan Turing Building
Encyclopedia
The Alan Turing Building, named after the mathematician
and founder of computer science
Alan Turing
, is a building at the University of Manchester
, in Manchester
, England
. It houses the School of Mathematics
, the Photon Science Institute and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
(part of the School of Physics and Astronomy
). The building is located in the Chorlton-on-Medlock
district of Manchester, on Upper Brook Street, and is adjacent to the new University Place. While under construction the project was known as AMPPS : Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics and Photon Science. The building was shortlisted for the Greater Manchester Building of the Year 2008 prize, which is awarded by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
. The manager of the building project was awarded a silver medal in the Chartered Institute of Building "Construction Manager of the Year" awards.
building was completed in July 2007, and was designed by architect
s Sheppard Robson. It consists of three "fingers", each of which are four stories high. The building is of steel frame
construction, with reinforced concrete
stair wells, and grey zinc
exterior cladding.
The northern two fingers are joined by an atrium
, which is spanned by a series of bridges. The southernmost finger was designed to hold low vibration laboratories
, and is joined by a glazed bridge at third floor level to the middle finger.
An 'over-sailing' roof structure connects the three fingers acting as a suspension system for a photovoltaic array/solar shading using thin film
technology. This photovoltaic array is designed to produce nearly 41 megawatt hours
per annum, a saving of 17,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide
each year. At the time of completion this was the largest photovoltaic array in North West England
, and helped the architects to win an award for "Business Commitment to the Environment".
One condition for planning approval
was that the project included corridors for pedestrian access and visual transparency between Upper Brook Street and Oxford Road. This was to counter complaints by the residents of Brunswick, on the other side of Upper Brook Street, that previous university developments seemed to be creating a wall to them. The pedestrian walkway between the second and third finger, and the transparent atrium met these demands. This follows the line of an earlier street, when the site was a residential area, and when reopened will run from Upper Brook Street to Oxford Road and is called "Wilton Street", as it was historically. The roof structure was also required by the planning authorities so that the development is regarded as one building.
In the 1960s many mathematics departments were housed in high-rise buildings including the Mathematics Tower at the Victoria University of Manchester
, and the Maths and Social Sciences Building
at UMIST
. These proved completely unsuited to the activities of a mathematics department (and arguably any academic department) as travel between floors in lifts (and uninviting stairways) discourages interaction between mathematicians resulting from chance encounter. Buildings such as the Mathematics Institute at Warwick
(at East Site and later the Zeeman Building) and the Isaac Newton Institute
at Cambridge are deliberately low-rise and designed to encourage chance encounter. The Alan Turing Building was designed with substantial input from the mathematicians and the design reflects this including a large open plan common room on the atrium bridge, open corridors and walkways and the relocation of the best traditional blackboard
s from the old buildings.
The Photon Science Institute occupies the southernmost finger, with the northern two fingers housing Mathematics on the first three floors and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
on the third and fourth floors. The ground floor atrium constitutes a public space including a small café
called Pi in the Sky.
Surrounding the atrium on the ground floor are the undergraduate common room for mathematics, as well as lecture rooms and undergraduate computer rooms. The first and second floor of the first two fingers mainly house the offices of academic staff and postgraduate students in mathematics, as well as the Manchester Institute for Mathematical Science (MIMS) conference areas. One of seminar rooms is named after the topologist Frank Adams
, and the library after algebraist Brian Hartley
. Lecture theatres are named after Mordell, Richardson
, Max Newman
and Lighthill
. A meeting room is named after Horace Lamb
and the Access Grid
room after Sydney Goldstein
. The bridge across the atrium has a café on it, and is the common room for mathematics academics and graduate students.
The third floor houses the academic offices of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
, which provides a new base for the research activities in astronomy and astrophysics with the relocation of many staff and students from Jodrell Bank Observatory. The Observatory now forms part of the JBCA and provides leading observational facilities such as the Lovell Telescope
and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network
(MERLIN). This floor differs in design from the others in that the rooms have windows onto the atrium and glass walls to central corridors in each wing whilst retaining glass walled walkways across the atrium. The astrophysics seminar room is named after Sir Bernard Lovell, founder of Jodrell Bank Observatory. The fourth floor contains a number of labs, an RFI screened room and clean room, all for astrophysics instrumentation construction, such as receivers for the Lovell Telescope
and the Planck spacecraft. In January 2008 the Project Design Office for the Square Kilometre Array
relocated to Manchester to be hosted by the JBCA, co-ordinating the global efforts in constructing the next generation radio telescope.
The Photon Science finger houses laboratories shielded from electromagnetic radiation and resistant to vibration. A bridge on the third floor connects from Astrophysics to the Photon Science Institute, but retaining that finger's resistance to mechanical vibration.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and founder of computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
Alan Turing
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
, is a building at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
, in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It houses the School of Mathematics
School of Mathematics, University of Manchester
The School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester is one of the largest mathematics departments in the United Kingdom, with around 80 academic staff and an undergraduate intake of roughly 400 a year and another 200 postgraduate students...
, the Photon Science Institute and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, is among the largest astrophysics groups in the UK. It includes the world leading facilities of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, the Development Office of the Square Kilometre Array, and the...
(part of the School of Physics and Astronomy
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester
The School of Physics and Astronomy, formed by the merger of the Departments of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST in 2004 when the universities merged to form the University of Manchester, is one of the largest and most active physics departments in the United Kingdom and...
). The building is located in the Chorlton-on-Medlock
Chorlton-on-Medlock
Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, the northern border of Chorlton-on-Medlock is the River Medlock which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. Its other borders roughly correspond to Stockport Road, Hathersage Road, Moss...
district of Manchester, on Upper Brook Street, and is adjacent to the new University Place. While under construction the project was known as AMPPS : Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics and Photon Science. The building was shortlisted for the Greater Manchester Building of the Year 2008 prize, which is awarded by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
. The manager of the building project was awarded a silver medal in the Chartered Institute of Building "Construction Manager of the Year" awards.
Architecture
The £43mMillion
One million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione , from mille, "thousand", plus the augmentative suffix -one.In scientific notation, it is written as or just 106...
building was completed in July 2007, and was designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
s Sheppard Robson. It consists of three "fingers", each of which are four stories high. The building is of steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
construction, with reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
stair wells, and grey zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
exterior cladding.
The northern two fingers are joined by an atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
, which is spanned by a series of bridges. The southernmost finger was designed to hold low vibration laboratories
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
, and is joined by a glazed bridge at third floor level to the middle finger.
An 'over-sailing' roof structure connects the three fingers acting as a suspension system for a photovoltaic array/solar shading using thin film
Thin film
A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer to several micrometers in thickness. Electronic semiconductor devices and optical coatings are the main applications benefiting from thin film construction....
technology. This photovoltaic array is designed to produce nearly 41 megawatt hours
Watt-hour
The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours or 3.6 megajoules.For constant power, energy in watt hours is the product of power in watts and time in hours...
per annum, a saving of 17,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
each year. At the time of completion this was the largest photovoltaic array in North West England
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
, and helped the architects to win an award for "Business Commitment to the Environment".
One condition for planning approval
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
was that the project included corridors for pedestrian access and visual transparency between Upper Brook Street and Oxford Road. This was to counter complaints by the residents of Brunswick, on the other side of Upper Brook Street, that previous university developments seemed to be creating a wall to them. The pedestrian walkway between the second and third finger, and the transparent atrium met these demands. This follows the line of an earlier street, when the site was a residential area, and when reopened will run from Upper Brook Street to Oxford Road and is called "Wilton Street", as it was historically. The roof structure was also required by the planning authorities so that the development is regarded as one building.
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
, and the Maths and Social Sciences Building
Maths and Social Sciences Building
The Maths and Social Sciences Building is a highrise tower in Manchester. It was part of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology until that university merged with the Victoria University of Manchester, to form the University of Manchester, in 2004.The MSS Building was...
at UMIST
UMIST
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...
. These proved completely unsuited to the activities of a mathematics department (and arguably any academic department) as travel between floors in lifts (and uninviting stairways) discourages interaction between mathematicians resulting from chance encounter. Buildings such as the Mathematics Institute at Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
(at East Site and later the Zeeman Building) and the Isaac Newton Institute
Isaac Newton Institute
The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and theoretical physics. Part of the University of Cambridge, it is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathematician and natural philosopher Sir Isaac Newton....
at Cambridge are deliberately low-rise and designed to encourage chance encounter. The Alan Turing Building was designed with substantial input from the mathematicians and the design reflects this including a large open plan common room on the atrium bridge, open corridors and walkways and the relocation of the best traditional blackboard
Chalkboard
A chalkboard or blackboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Chalkboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone...
s from the old buildings.
Occupancy and facilities
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, is among the largest astrophysics groups in the UK. It includes the world leading facilities of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, the Development Office of the Square Kilometre Array, and the...
on the third and fourth floors. The ground floor atrium constitutes a public space including a small café
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
called Pi in the Sky.
Surrounding the atrium on the ground floor are the undergraduate common room for mathematics, as well as lecture rooms and undergraduate computer rooms. The first and second floor of the first two fingers mainly house the offices of academic staff and postgraduate students in mathematics, as well as the Manchester Institute for Mathematical Science (MIMS) conference areas. One of seminar rooms is named after the topologist Frank Adams
Frank Adams
John Frank Adams FRS was a British mathematician, one of the founders of homotopy theory.-Life:He was born in Woolwich, a suburb in south-east London. He began research as a student of Abram Besicovitch, but soon switched to algebraic topology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of...
, and the library after algebraist Brian Hartley
Brian Hartley
Brian Hartley was a British Mathematician specialising in group theory.Hartley's Ph.D. thesis was completed in 1964 at the University of Cambridge under Philip Hall's supervision...
. Lecture theatres are named after Mordell, Richardson
Lewis Fry Richardson
Lewis Fry Richardson, FRS was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist and pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of weather forecasting, and the application of similar techniques to studying the causes of wars and how to prevent them...
, Max Newman
Max Newman
Maxwell Herman Alexander "Max" Newman, FRS was a British mathematician and codebreaker.-Pre–World War II:Max Newman was born Maxwell Neumann in Chelsea, London, England, on 7 February 1897...
and Lighthill
James Lighthill
Sir Michael James Lighthill, FRS was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics.-Biography:...
. A meeting room is named after Horace Lamb
Horace Lamb
Sir Horace Lamb FRS was a British applied mathematician and author of several influential texts on classical physics, among them Hydrodynamics and Dynamical Theory of Sound...
and the Access Grid
Access Grid
Access Grid is a collection of resources and technologies that enables large format audio and video based collaboration between groups of people in different locations. The Access Grid is an ensemble of resources, including multimedia large-format displays, presentation and interactive...
room after Sydney Goldstein
Sydney Goldstein
Sydney Goldstein FRS was a British mathematician noted for his contribution to fluid dynamics. He is described as:...
. The bridge across the atrium has a café on it, and is the common room for mathematics academics and graduate students.
The third floor houses the academic offices of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, is among the largest astrophysics groups in the UK. It includes the world leading facilities of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, the Development Office of the Square Kilometre Array, and the...
, which provides a new base for the research activities in astronomy and astrophysics with the relocation of many staff and students from Jodrell Bank Observatory. The Observatory now forms part of the JBCA and provides leading observational facilities such as the Lovell Telescope
Lovell Telescope
The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire in the north-west of England. When it was constructed in 1955, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m in diameter;it is now the third largest, after the...
and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network
MERLIN
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of STFC as a National Facility.The array consists of up to seven radio...
(MERLIN). This floor differs in design from the others in that the rooms have windows onto the atrium and glass walls to central corridors in each wing whilst retaining glass walled walkways across the atrium. The astrophysics seminar room is named after Sir Bernard Lovell, founder of Jodrell Bank Observatory. The fourth floor contains a number of labs, an RFI screened room and clean room, all for astrophysics instrumentation construction, such as receivers for the Lovell Telescope
Lovell Telescope
The Lovell Telescope is a radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey, Cheshire in the north-west of England. When it was constructed in 1955, the telescope was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world at 76.2 m in diameter;it is now the third largest, after the...
and the Planck spacecraft. In January 2008 the Project Design Office for the Square Kilometre Array
Square Kilometre Array
The Square Kilometre Array is a radio telescope in development which will have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre. It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument...
relocated to Manchester to be hosted by the JBCA, co-ordinating the global efforts in constructing the next generation radio telescope.
The Photon Science finger houses laboratories shielded from electromagnetic radiation and resistant to vibration. A bridge on the third floor connects from Astrophysics to the Photon Science Institute, but retaining that finger's resistance to mechanical vibration.