A few weeks ago, the Solinear team embarked on a site-seeing tour of York. York is famous for several reasons including its minster, Betty’s tea rooms, The National Railway Museum, Shambles and old, cobbled streets but the team was focusing on York’s perhaps lesser-known sites.
Solinear is proud to have been involved with a number of projects in its home city. Beginning with the University of York.
Anne Lister College
The first stop on our tour was the RIBAaward-winning Anne Lister College.
Solinear designed, manufactured and installed a range of bespoke elements for this project including Versatil TM soffit cladding panels/rain screening, aluminium flashings to the clerestory, copings, facias, columns and wall panels – all finished in RAL 8022, often referred to as ‘Black Brown’, a deep, rich colour known for its sophistication and versatility.
Solinear was not only proud to work on this outstanding place of learning in our home City of York, but also on a building dedicated to a woman of remarkable historical significance; Anne Lister.
Anne Lister (1791–1840) was a pioneering Yorkshirewoman, landowner, businesswoman, entrepreneur and diarist who lived an independent and extraordinary life with her partner, Ann Walker, in the early 19th century.
After inheriting her family estate at Shibden Hall, she managed finances, negotiated contracts, oversaw tenants and even developed industrial ventures including coal mines – at a time when women rarely held such roles.
Lister was also known for defying social conventions, dressing in black clothing considered masculine for the time and travelling widely. Her confidence and independence earned her the nickname Gentleman Jack.
In 1834, Lister and Walker exchanged vows and took communion together at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York – an event many historians regard as one of the earliest recorded same-sex marriages in Britain, although it had no legal status at the time.
Her diaries – totalling around four million words – are so historically significant that they are recognised by UNESCO as part of the Memory of the World Register and today, Anne Lister’s writings provide historians with a rare and powerful insight into life, society and identity in early industrial Britain.
The Anne Lister College building has won, or been recognised in, numerous awards including:
- RIBA Yorkshire Award 2023: Anne Lister College was one of the regional winners in the Royal Institute of British Architects’ 2023 Yorkshire Awards.
- RIBA Yorkshire Project Architect of the Year 2023: The project also won this award, recognising project architect Natalia Maximova of Sheppard Robson.
- MSA Awards 2022 – Multi-Residential Built: The project was also recognised by the Manchester Society of Architects in its 2022 awards.
- Construction News MMC Project of the Year: The Anne Lister college won this award, recognising the use of Modern Methods of Construction and off-site manufacturing.
Anne Lister College – what3words: ///allows.unrealistic.bikes
Piazza
Our next stop was the impressive, award-winning Piazza Restaurant/Piazza Building on Campus East at the university.
The building provides flexible learning and teaching facilities alongside social and student spaces and more recently, the Piazza Building has taken on another important role within the University. In 2025, part of the building was refurbished to become the new home of the York School of Architecture. The redevelopment included open-plan professional studio space, specialist teaching areas, a model-making workshop, BIM facilities, acoustic separation and social and exhibition spaces.
Architecturally, the building has a distinctive curved/crescent-shaped form combining numerous façade materials, with extensive glazing contributing to its contemporary appearance. The development also incorporated a retained oak tree within its courtyard.
The Piazza Building has won, or been recognised in, several awards including:
- Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber – Sustainability Award: The Piazza Building was recognised in the ‘Sustainability’ category.
- Construction News Awards: Recognised in the ‘Health, Safety & Wellbeing’ category
- Leeds Sustainability Institute RISE Awards: the building was recognised for its use of new technologies in the ‘New Technologies’ category
- Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber – Health, Safety & Wellbeing: the project was Highly Commended
Solinear played a vital role in helping the building’s sustainability goals by delivering Solex Halo TM 150 projecting solar shading and AQ100 louvres offering thermal comfort for occupants of the building and allowing vital natural airflow.
The bespoke systems were finished in a complementary RAL colour and installed to follow the sweeping curve of the building, highlighting Solinear’s skill and dexterity in creating high-performance, visually striking façade systems.
Piazza Building- what3words: ///dogs.luck.galaxy
Piazza Restaurant – what3words: ///salt.frost.acid
Institute of Safe Autonomy
The team’s last stop on the Solinear University of York site tour was the Institute of Safe Autonomy.
The Institute for Safe Autonomy (ISA) at the University of York is a £15m purpose-built specialist research and testing facility on Campus East, dedicated to making robotics and connected autonomous systems safer. The purpose-built facility was completed in 2022 and officially launched in 2024. ISA is particularly notable because it encompasses research, testing, industry collaboration and real-world deployment within one facility. The University describes it as the only institute in the UK dedicated to safe autonomy, with partners spanning industry, government and civil society.
The facility brings together more than 100 researchers from disciplines including computer science, engineering, physics, law, management and philosophy with the central objective to understand and reduce the risks associated with autonomous systems, while enabling their safe adoption in society.
Its work covers autonomous technologies operating:
- On land – including autonomous vehicles and robots
- In the air – including drones
- Underwater – including autonomous and remotely operated systems
- In healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and other applications
With research organised around three main pillars:
- Design and verification – Developing and testing hardware and software that can be demonstrated to be safe.
- Assurance – Developing methods for demonstrating that autonomous systems are safe and establishing approaches to their regulation and assurance.
- Communications – Developing resilient and secure communications, including quantum-based technologies, for autonomous systems operating on land, underwater, in the air and in orbit.
One of the most fascinating aspects of ISA is that the building itself functions as a living lab where testing can progress from highly controlled laboratory conditions to more realistic environments. The facility incorporates features that allow robots and autonomous vehicles to move around it, including automated doors, wide corridors and a high-capacity lift. There are also indoor and outdoor test spaces, including a six-metre-high indoor test area, rooftop laboratories and an 18,000-litre water tank.
The building has an interesting sustainability element too with a solar farm being developed alongside ISA, with the intention of combining photovoltaic generation with Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The solar installation itself provides a research opportunity, with robots and drones being developed to inspect and maintain solar arrays.
Solinear designed, manufactured and installed a dramatic, bespoke MallasolTM brise soleil and canopy system finished in warm, earthy mid‑brown RAL 8007 colour (RAL Classic colour “Fawn Brown”) for this groundbreaking facility. The bespoke system provides a distinctive architectural feature to the building while delivering solar shading and helping integrate the façade with the building’s innovative purpose.
Institute of Safe Autonomy – what3words: ///sculpture.taking.bound
The whole project journey
These University of York projects highlight the diversity and adaptability of Solinear’s products merging performance and functionality with contemporary aesthetics creating spectacular façade elements for the varied buildings that help make the University of York a fascinating site of learning.
While our site teams see projects through to completion, many of our office, and factory-based, colleagues don’t always get the chance to experience the finished result firsthand. Visits like these provide an opportunity to bring the whole project journey to life.
Having the designers, manufacturers and installers on hand to share insights into the development process, as well as any challenges that were overcome along the way, added to the experience. It’s always inspiring to see how collaboration across the business contributes to the successful delivery of these exceptional projects.
Watch out for further Solinear outing updates!
