Pieces of masonry have fallen off the much heralded, BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rated Environment & Sustainability Institute building at Exeter University. The building opened in April 2013. It cost £30million, including almost £23million from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence programme.

The masonry fell off on Tuesday 6 January. The building was closed until Friday, 9 January, when it re-opened with restrictions. Work got underway on repairs last week (beginning 12 January).

The University made an announcement about the falling masonry on 6 January but has not responded to enquiries since. The University has a ‘communications manager’, Jez Prins, who apparently does not have a telephone number!

The building at the University's Penryn Campus, near Falmouth, is an interdisciplinary centre from where the university aims to lead cutting-edge research into solutions to problems of environmental change.

Being involved in environmental issues, it was considered important to achieve the highest BREEAM rating. Its score at the post construction stage was 94.33%. It used local materials, including stone cladding.

To repair the damaged façade, scaffolding needs to be put up around where the cladding gave way on the building’s front wall. It needs to be engineered, buttressed scaffolding subject to specialist structural preparation, which is why it is taking a while to get it up.

The University quickly had two surveys undertaken by structural engineers to try to identify the extent of the problem, its cause and remedy.