UCE / Open Advantage offices,

Broad Street, Birmingham

Client: UCEcom
Contractors: GTH Construction
Completion: December 2003

UCEcom is a company based within UCE's Faculty of Art & Design's Visual Communication Department. UCEcom is an externally funded project which is funded by bodies including Advantage West Midlands. The project offers local businesses the opportunity to explore various software solutions.

...the design responds to the client and the nature of their work...

The building sits on Birmingham's entertainment strip, Broad Street, and offers three floors of accommodation. The building is a typical 1980s speculative office building. Essentially the scheme is split into 3 clear sections which correspond to the 3 floors of the building. The ground floor houses all of the public functions, predominantly a seminar space and a demonstration suite. The first floor provides staff meeting areas and staff social areas, whilst the top floor is an open plan office space.

Aesthetically the design responds to the client and the nature of their work, and hence the interior will be highly graphical, using graphics and text etched onto the many glass screen walls which form the different spaces. Splashes of colour inject life into an otherwise sophisticated materials palette.