The Campus Commons becomes a new front door to the URENCO campus, with a modern expression of a design attitude germane to the desert southwest and a form rooted in the New Mexico landscape. As an amenity and respite in this landscape, it is configured around a traditional New Mexican courtyard with surrounding porticos and native trees that provide shade and
protection from the sun and wind, making the outdoor space usable most of the year.
This configuration also enables transparency to the outdoors, with all areas of the building directly relating to the courtyard. Additionally, it allows daylight to penetrate deep to the thin floor plates, and takes advantage of the optimal north and south solar orientations. These aspects and others, also help the facility to express both the uniqueness of New Mexico and the
technology behind the sustainable nuclear power generated by URENCO’s enrichment process.