Frederick Lanchester Building, University of Coventry

Architect	Short and Associates
Date Built	1998 - 2000
Location	Prior Street
Description
The architects, Short and Associates, describe Coventry University's Lanchester Library as, " ... the world’s first deep-plan, multi-storey, naturally conditioned building on anything like this scale." They add that the commission was for, "large open square floor plans." The natural air conditioning is achieved by principles that are simple but, " ... the physics is complicated: air is introduced into a plenum below the upper ground floor and fed upwards through four atria. It is extracted via perimeter stacks and a large central atrium. The motive power is entirely provided by the natural buoyancy effect of warming air." The building features patterning in the brickwork. The library is named after the engineer Frederick Lanchester the, "Coventry-based designer and constructor of the first British petrol-driven motor car; inventor and major international figure in aeronautics."