Arup Associates’ design for Coventry University’s new Faculty of Engineering and Computing embraces the university’s progressive, experiential approach to teaching these subjects.

The unifying means of circulation allows people to navigate intuitively around and between the building’s different levels. In this spatially rich, fluid building, smaller spaces juxtaposed with larger atria provide places for staff and students to circulate, read, learn, communicate, and interact as part of the wider faculty community. Teaching breaks out of the confines of lecture theatres and classrooms into the informal spaces– so much so that the university is now opening it to students around-the-clock for a trial period .

The design-and-build approach rationalised the building down to the last detail. But this isn’t an architecture whose success hangs on the detail; its qualities are intrinsic to the building. With everything exposed there were no layers of complexity and there was no need for a huge fixtures, fittings and equipment budget.

The design team’s focus on how people would experience the building, meant working closely with the client throughout the project. Arup Associates did this through workshops exploring the university’s vision for its new faculty and conceived and approach whereby the building itself would become a learning tool. The result is a highly readable building offering a rich, dynamic experience.

"The building has been hugely successful. Students use the building’s open and collaborative spaces both socially and academically, working together in groups or as individuals." - Gerry Ackerman,Deputy Director of Estates and Property, Coventry University