How are university buildings evolving to accommodate new
ways of teaching and learning? Alexi Marmot will be addressing this question
when she speaks at next month’s Education Estates conference in Manchester http://www.educationestates.com/conference/
Alexi will describe how AMA helped to articulate and deliver a new vision for the Commons building at Bath Spa University. Design Director David Jenkin led the interior strategy, consultation and design. Commons is a fascinating, flexible and innovative new facility. Designed by Cube Design and opened in 2014 by David Puttnam, it is the university’s largest building at 8,000 sq m and the hub of the Newton Park campus.
Lord Puttnam opening the Commons building Source: bathspa.ac.uk |
Commons was conceived as a different type of university
building. Providing learning, teaching and meeting spaces, staff work bases and
major specialist digital studios, it needed to be highly flexible, fit for the
current and next generation of students and staff.
Different furniture and space types encouraging a range of activities |
The university recognised that a different approach was
needed for the shell and the interior, says Alexi: “Both architectural and
interior workstreams maintained an inventive and collaborative approach,
allowing each to focus on their different domains: one on the building fabric
to create a robust shell, naturally ventilated, energy efficient, and the other
on end users and anticipating future change in university activities.”
The new building represents quite radical change for the
university. Staff and students
share the same building, and many of the same facilities. Academic staff work in
a club-type zone with few conventional workplaces, none individually owned. Elsewhere,
teaching rooms are interspersed with breakout and group study areas in local
hubs. Interactive group learning spaces, individual and quiet study areas, are
provided generously on the ground floor alongside a design lab, recording
studio, and large flexible conference room.
Part contained spaces provide some intimacy |
“The new building was immediately popular with students
following its launch in mid-2014,” says Alexi, “and is full of their energy and
enthusiasm.” Commons was a runner-up in the Buildings that Inspire category of
the Guardian’s University Awards this year http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/19/buildings-that-inspire-category-award-winner-and-runners-up