STEP CHANGE IN
BUILDING DESIGN FOR
THE UNIVERSITY
OF NOTTINGHAM
MAKE ARCHITECTS
Located on the award-winning, nationally recognised University
Park campus, the 6,200 m 2 Teaching and Learning Building (TLB)
was designed to help meet the 2020 vision for the University, to
raise its international profile and provide a step change in the way
education is delivered by creating a flexible space that deliberately
blurs the boundaries between study, socialising and work.
Capable of accommodating up to 2,500 students at any one time,
the building includes a broad range of teaching and learning
environments from a double height learning hub with a mezzanine
for quieter, informal learning and peer mentoring, as well as drop-
in desks, shared tables and private study rooms, to reconfigurable
teaching rooms, a lecture hall with raked seating and small group
discussion rooms. It also has a performing arts space and a number
of social learning and breakout areas with views out across the
campus.
David Patterson, lead architect, said: “We designed the Teaching
and Learning Building in collaboration with a number of
stakeholders including academics and students to ensure it
would meet the needs of the users. It has a flexible framework
with column-free floorplates that can be reconfigured by adding
or removing internal partitions; generous breakout areas with
multiple functions; and movable furniture that lets students and
teachers define their own interactive spaces. We also developed
standalone teaching modules that could ‘plug into’ vertical and
horizontal services, allowing the building to be built in phases, as
well as a strategic masterplan for future phased expansion.”
At the heart of the campus and bounded by mature trees, a 20th-
century villa and an award-winning 1970s library, the TLB provides
a much-needed focal point for the campus and a welcoming nexus
for students as they move across the University’s Learning Quarter.