Ucl

Our brief for the School of Management’s move to Canary Wharf was to design a whole university satellite on the 38th floor of One Canada Square, complete with academic, administrative and social spaces. We needed to create a space where business meets academia – breaking down corporate norms to provide a stimulating learning environment.A hub space welcomes students on arrival with two ‘Harvard-style’ lecture theatres located either side; their intimate semi-circular format and tiered seating facilitating discussion. Breakout niches are also integrated into the window bays at the rear of the seating to allow smaller group working.We wanted to encourage interaction at every opportunity, which manifested itself through a deliberate breaking o... More

Despite the scale of UCL’s estate, the University lacked good quality collegiate external space. Through their masterplan, an opportunity was identified to create a new courtyard terrace above an existing service yard to the rear of the Wilkins Building, UCL’s original home, to provide a new high quality piece of public realm for both staff and students.We developed the idea of enclosing the services yard as an undercroft, allowing the external space above to become the new amenity for a variety of uses. This is conceived as a contemporary, high quality, stone landscaped terrace set within the historic courtyard. As well as being split level with a new lift and grand staircase, this also creates new routes across the campus, bringing activi... More