University of East Anglia uncertain over Raac-hit ziggurats

Officials have said they are unsure as to when the Grade II* Listed ziggurats will reopen. 

It comes four months after the university was forced to close the campus building over the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).

Officials were left scrambling to find alternative accommodation for hundreds of students who were due to arrive or return to campus in September.

Just short of 600 were able to remain on campus, while 170 were placed in private accommodation in St Crispin's House - a newly-completed block of student flats in Duke Street, close to Anglia Square.

St Crispin's House (Image: Newsquest)

A UEA spokesman has stressed bosses remain confident they will be able to "accommodate all new starters" arriving in September 2024 - but did not confirm when the famous ziggurats would reopen. 

They continued: “Investigations have been carried out for all our buildings to determine whether Raac is present, and we are continuing to work with colleagues, consultants and contractors to progress further surveys and the necessary remedial works.

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"We hope over the coming weeks to be in a position to determine when the accommodation that is currently closed will reopen. The safety of our students will of course be our highest priority, and we will not be opening any accommodation that we cannot be sure is safe.

"We know that availability of accommodation is an important consideration for students looking at universities and we remain confident that we will be able to accommodate all new starters arriving at UEA in September 2024."

The university also confirmed last year's closure had "no financial impact" on students and all of those affected were supported by its student services teams.

A history of the ziggurats

The ziggurats, officially named the Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces, were designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, who was an internationally acclaimed British architect.

Lasdun was commissioned to draw up a masterplan for the project in 1962, and the buildings were completed in 1967.

The ziggurats in 1983 (Image: Newsquest)

Since then, the buildings have gone on to attract widespread interest and have led to the UEA winning awards.

They were named 'one of the most outstanding new university designs in Britain' when they were first built and earned eighth spot in the top 10 of best UK university architecture by the Architect's Journal.

The buildings have also been recognised by Historic England as Britain’s ‘first and most successful expression of a university as a small city rather than a dispersed campus'. 

Work being carried out at the UEA in the 1960s (Image: Newsquest)