Money from Sainsbury family will enable upgrades to building’s envelope and environmental systems
Norman Foster’s grade II* listed Sainsbury Centre is set for a comprehensive refurbishment after a £90m-plus donation from a charity linked to the Sainsbury family.
The art museum, located at the University of East Anglia (UEA) campus in Norwich, was built in 1977 and is today recognised as a landmark achievement of the British High-Tech architectural movement.
It was listed in 2012, after an application to English Heritage by C20 Society.
The donation, one of the largest ever made to a UK museum, came from Gatsby, a charitable foundation created by David Sainsbury, the son of Robert Sainsbury, himself the grandson of the eponymous supermarket chain.
Robert and his wife Lisa Sainsbury donated their art and material culture collection to UEA in 1973, which helped establish the art museum.
“My father always regarded his commissioning of Norman Foster to produce the Sainsbury Centre as one of the best things he ever did, and it gives me great pleasure to provide the funding to enhance its future,” said Lord Sainsbury.
In 2024, Foster & Partners was appointed to undertake a feasibility study to determine which parts of the centre should be upgraded or replaced.
It decided the building’s envelope should be altered and environmental systems replaced, with photovoltaic panels incorporated into a new roof system and building connected to the university’s district heating and cooling systems.
Some key visitor amenities should be renovated, with the addition of entrances, lifts, signage and flooring, as well as solar controlled blinds to bring more natural light into gallery spaces.
In 2022, Foster named the Sainsbury Centre, along with the refurbishment of the Reichstag in Berlin, as the buildings he was most proud of in his career.
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