The University of Essex is one of the so-called ‘plate glass’ universities that were founded in the late 1950s and early 1960s following decisions made by the University Grants Committee. There was a deep anxiety in the 1950s that Britain was trailing behind the USA in contributing to technological developments, so The University of Essex was established as Britain’s answer to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The masterplan and majority of the buildings were designed by the Architects' Co-Partnership in the early 1960s under the direction of Kenneth Capon. Capon’s vision for the campus was to avoid what he termed the English trap of ‘softening everything up’ and instead creating ‘something fierce to let them work within.’ He decided to design the campus buildings in the Brutalist style, inspired by Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Kenzo Tange.

Discovery of knowledge and the importance of self-education were central to the founding philosophy of the university. To reinforce this notion the Albert Sloman Library (named after the university’s founding Vice Chancellor) was the most prominent free-standing building on the campus. Capon explained that ‘architecturally, its position is as significant as that of Magdalen Tower in the curving High Street of Oxford. It symbolises what the University stands for – the conservation and discovery of knowledge, the importance of self-education, and the inter-relationships of subjects.’