The University of Sheffield’s £99m award-winning Wave building received the grand formal opening, earlier this week.
The new home of the social sciences was opened via a cake-cutting by guest speaker, Will Hutton, President of the Academy of Social Sciences.
The cake was baked by alumni and 2018 Bake Off winner Rahul Mandal.
Keith Lilley, former Director of Estates and Facilities Management, at the University of Sheffield, said: “The Wave is more than just a building for the university.
“The Wave is our first net zero building as we work towards the whole University reaching this important milestone.”
Students have been able to use its state-of-the-art facilities since December of last year.
The 16,600sqm building comes as a welcome change for social sciences, before, the largest department in the University, accounting for 34% of all students, was spread across 18 buildings most not being kitted out to accommodate the learning going on there.
Thanks to the designers that collaborated over this project at HLM Architects, the building utilizes technology to achieve a net-zero carbon emission status.
This has helped the university achieve 8th in UK and 42nd in the world for its sustainability work out of 1,700 in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings.
Laura Armitage, Faculty Estates & Infrastructure Manager as the University of Sheffield, said: “Colleagues at HLM Architects have understood and captured the ambitions of the Faculty and the Academic mission with pride and awareness for the impacts of the building on the legacy of the University and the wider city region.”
Almost more crucially than receiving the South Yorkshire Property Award for Design Excellence, The Wave café is open to the public and aims to become a staple of the area used by locals.
Guest speaker Will Hutton also provided 11 challenges for the future of The Wave; these include health and housing, good governance, and productivity.
More information about the wave can be found here.