In repurposing the Cockcroft Building at the University of Brighton, one of the largest retrofits of an occupied academic building in the UK, Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects were tasked with transforming a building designed for the Atomic Age into a research environment for the Information Age. Named after the scientist who split the atom and designed with a machine-like rationalism, echoing the Grade II listed former American Embassy by Saarinen, the ten-storey building dominates the skyline and remains the centrepiece of the University's Moulsecoomb campus, providing 15,000sqm of teaching and research labs, study spaces and academic offices. By any measure, the building had reached the end of its useful life. The first opportunity for a wholesale refurbishment provided the chance to replace its outdated infrastructure and address issues of overheating, solar glare, high energy costs and complex way-finding as well as improve the building’s fabric, which had battled against the corrosive maritime climate for half a century. The project also allowed the architects to repurpose the building, capitalising on the innovative column-free floorplates. By moving circulation from a dark, narrow central spine corridor to a southern ‘solar’ corridor, FBM were able to release the clear floor-plate to provide a variety of new agile workspaces for formal and social learning. Laboratories designed during the Cold War have been replaced with spaces that support a diverse, global learning community. New ‘Learning Labs’ act as destinations within a new, open and transparent customer journey, which provides settings for break out and collaboration and glimpses of activity within, as well as re-establishing connection with the landscape and the impressive coastal views. As well as addressing infrastructure issues, with new lifts and ancillary facilities to cater for a more gender-balanced staff and student population, the long-term sustainability of the building has been secured. The holistic architectural, structural and building services design has unlocked the hidden environmental potential of the building itself, with a new pattern of circulation and exposed thermal mass, working in tandem with the latest technology that includes an Aquifer Thermal Energy Store. The result has been a 57% reduction in energy demand, 59% reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel savings of £82,000 per annum. The Cockcroft Building now performs as well as a new building built to current Part L requirements. In addition to its technical achievements, the refurbished building has had a long-term positive impact on the 2,000 staff and students who use the building. Professor Andrew Lloyd, Dean of the College of Life, Health and Physical Sciences stated that “this transformative refurbishment has converted this traditional 1960s building into light, airy, inspirational, state-of-the-art learning spaces for students and collaborative working environment for staff.” Dr Chris Garrett, Principal Lecturer in the College of Life, Health and Physical Sciences, said: “As a lecturer who has been teaching in the Cockcroft building since 1987 the new spaces are wonderfully light and airy. I think the glass partitions have reduced psychological barriers increasing interactivity between students, staff and facilities and I really like combining the PC and visualizer to explain concepts. Of course visitors are impressed, which is good, but what matters in the longer term is the effectiveness for teaching and research, the refurbishment has definitely moved us on.”