
Learning & Teaching Centre – Brunel University London
This new, seven storey building provides learning and teaching spaces for the student centred pedagogies that are evolving at Brunel University London.
The building 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. Generous circulation around and through the atrium provide further spaces for chance encounters, collaborative endeavours and individual study. All parts of the building are conceived as potential learning spaces, whether circulation, café, multi-use space on ground floor or the rooftop terrace.
Set at the edge of a landscaped quad, the building is perpendicular to the Grade II Listed Brutalist Central lecture block. The light, transparent façade of the LTC is designed to be a counterpoint to the Brutalist architecture of its neighbour. The proposed landscape design unifies the quad, removing complex levels to create a connecting surface to all the surrounding buildings.