Transformation of Former Office Building to new Student Hub for Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University required a former office block to be converted into a student hub to suit the needs to students who were based outside the main campus and didn't have anywhere nearby to study or socialise between seminars and lectures, so the design needed to be shaped by the people who'd actually use it. We needed to transform the disused office building into a space that supported both serious study and genuine relaxation, informed directly by consultation with student representative groups.
The Challenge
Our Response
The Outcome
The approach was to re-organise the building around two complementary modes of student life: focus and downtime. For study this meant creating a variety of settings to suit different working styles for meeting rooms, a quiet room, individual pods and group work pods. For social space the response was bolder: a room with mood colour-changing lighting, a chill-out beanbag room, a TV room, a pool room, a music room, a games room, and a social hub café at the heart of the building.
The result is a dramatic transformation from a dated, disused office space into a vibrant, energetic and colourful series of spaces for the students to make their own, giving them the freedom to take both relaxation and study seriously, on their own terms, across a building genuinely designed around how they live their day-to-day campus life.
"The space* studio has been working for the University in the capacity of architects and interior designers since 2003 and continues to work with us to the present day in and on-going relationship. We often get them involved in the trickier projects that need an innovative, design led, yet realistic approach, typically within a very demanding timeframe.
The range of projects they have completed for us include major interior refurbishments of teaching accommodation, fit out work, signage design and implementation, and an OFSTED compliant nursery. This range of projects is testament to their ability, flexibility and attitude to working in partnership with the Estates Department and or other consultants."
