The University for the Creative Art’s competition for a new business school for the creative industries provided an opportunity to explore how the new facility could attract and retain the best talent from around the world in terms of 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 enlivened the campus, whilst meeting the project’s more pragmatic challenges such as keeping the campus fully operational during the works.

Our design put the real life experience of the students first, facilitating their 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 cultivation of ideas.

The three key ideas we presented included:

1 – An elegant, refined sculptural atrium

2 – A new front door

3 – Connected permeable spaces between the teaching block and atrium