Penoyre & Prasad has been appointed to design a new £50m Learning & Teaching Centre for Brunel University.

This new, six storey building provides learning and teaching spaces for the student-centred pedagogies that are evolving at Brunel University London.

The Learning & Teaching Centre is conceived as a flexible rig of team-based learning and teaching spaces, organised around a central spine of informal learning spaces. This ‘learning commons’ flows up through the building, in a series of IT enriched stairs, platforms and balconies through the central atrium.

Set at the edge of a landscaped quad, the building is perpendicular to the Grade II Listed Brutalist central lecture block, and will replace the 1968 John Crank building. The proposed landscape design unifies the quad, removing complex levels to create a connecting surface to all the surrounding buildings.

Deputy vice-chancellor Andrew George said: “Brunel is engaged on an ambitious plan to transform our education, and key to that plan is the provision of a Learning and Teaching centre that will support our students and staff in adopting new approaches, and signal our continued commitment to provide the highest quality education.

The entries for the design competition provided a range of inspiring ideas of what this building could be like. In particular the design put forward by Penoyre & Prasad captures our vision of providing flexible, ICT-enabled space for both formal and informal collaborative learning. We are excited to be working with the design team so that we can develop a building that will serve the needs of our students and staff for many decades, and which also act as an inspiring heart of our campus”

The project is part of a £150m investment over five years, which will also deliver a new engineering complex and a sports and wellbeing centre nearby. The design competition shortlist included O’Donnell+ Tuomey, Hawkins\Brown, Wilkinson Eyre and fjmt.