Bottoming out at UCL

We attended an End of Excavation ceremony for the New Student Centre in Bloomsbury today. The "bottoming out" event marks an important milestone for this flagship project. The event was organised by the contractors Mace and University College London with a keynote speech given by Michael Arthur, President and Provost of UCL. 

The excavation extends down 11.5 metres into the London clay to create a two-storey basement. Nayoung Jeong, PhD student from the Slade School of Art, is preparing some of the excavated clay to produce work for displaying in the completed building. Over 6,400m³ of material has been removed from the ground and two boreholes have been installed reaching 110m deep into the aquifer which will provide free cooling for the building.

Photo courtesy of Dave Poultney/In-Press Photography