specially—made acoustic baffles, which absorb sound. the wall panelling itself is kind of striated. in this building, you have two different aspects — a library and a dance faculty, in the one space. from an acoustic point of view, you have to keep them apart, but from an ideological and cultural point of view, you want to connect them. so that was the challenge of this project. we've designed the surrounds to the staircase so they're overlooked, so people can actually work there by standing at the edges overlooking the staircase. because there's something really phenomenal about people—watching. the building is a concrete building, it is a concrete frame. we have a thermally—active system, which allows the building to be cooled through that concrete. so not only is the concrete structure, but it's also environmental. for me, the one word that epitomises this building is "open". _ it's very important to our students that they feel that this building i is here for them, and they can move into it and occupy it, and use it- the way that they want to. the name town house contains two