UCA’s competition for a new Business School for the Creative Industries provided an opportunity to further explore how the new business school can attract and retain the best worldwide talent, both students and academic teaching staff. For us, this meant creating an inspirational environment that met the aspirations of the academic courses and the practicalities of providing the best teaching environments. Our approach created an enabling space that enlivens the campus, whilst meeting the project’s more pragmatic challenges, keeping the campus fully operational during the works.

Our design put the lived experience of the students first. Facilitating the student’s tutorial, intellectual, experiential, and professional needs. Thereby unlocking their true potential. It provided a safe and convivial space to linger and have spontaneous interactions – essential for the fertilisation of ideas.

The three key ideas we presented:

1 – An elegant, refined sculptural atrium

2 – A new front door

3 – Connected permeable spaces between the teaching block and atrium