Great New Spaces

Café

The café on the ground floor will be operated by The University's Estates and Accommodation, Catering and Events service (ACE) with a planned facility to order via a mobile app for collection to reduce queuing at peak times. Tables and seating are provided in the café area with additional seating for colleagues available in village greens situated on the upper floors.

Village greens

Each upper floor has a number of village greens that include kitchen facilities and seating areas where teams and neighbourhoods can collaborate with each other in a more relaxed social setting.

Indoor garden rooms

The first floor and second floors each have an indoor garden room. Double storey in height, these spaces are bright and airy with windows from floor to ceiling. The reflective garden room is intended to create a relaxing atmosphere for more contemplative moments on the sunnier south side of the building, where the active garden room on the north side can become a space for colleagues to be more physically active - enjoying yoga or perhaps a game of table tennis, for example. They are spaces intended to encourage building users to step away from their desks - without having to travel far.

To compliment the collaborative work in core meeting rooms and social areas, there are a number of quieter, more reflective spaces available throughout the building.

Reading room

The reading room is on the third floor. It is anticipated that this will be a silent working space, with a number of desks and other seating available for those seeking a library-style atmosphere for periods of work.

Cellular meeting spaces

Cellular rooms within neighbourhoods provide flexible space for those based in each neighbourhood to use as desired. These will not be bookable centrally. They include a range of sizes suited to different uses, with flexibility for each neighbourhood to define how they are managed.

Meeting rooms

There are a number of core meeting rooms available to everyone which can be booked centrally:

Four 12-person meeting rooms (ground, first, second and third floors)

Two 6-person meeting rooms (ground floor)

One 30-person seminar room (ground floor)

One 36-person outreach room (ground floor)

One 20-person meeting room (second floor)

Cellular rooms

There are 60 additional cellular rooms across the neighbourhoods, providing flexible space for those based in each neighbourhood to use as desired. These will not be bookable centrally. They include a range of sizes suited to different uses, with flexibility for each neighbourhood to define how they are managed.

Non-bookable meeting booths

In addition to the informal seating in each village green, meeting booths that do not need to be booked are provided on the ground floor, making use of the space under the stairs.

Teaching and events space

A large flat floor teaching and events space with the capacity to hold a maximum audience of 170 people is situated on the ground floor. This space can also be divided to create two rooms (holding 105 people and 65 people).

Seminar room

The seminar room situated on the ground floor has the capacity to hold 30 people.

Outreach room

The outreach room can hold up to 36 people and includes cubbyholes for visitors to store any backpacks etc. enabling more space for engagement.

Neighbourhoods

Each of the upper floors have six secure neighbourhoods (accessed by swipe-cards) designed away from the stairwells for acoustic protection and situated to the outer edges of the building beside opening windows providing natural light and fresh air ventilation. Some of these will be occupied by Usher staff and students, others by carefully chosen partners. Colleagues within each neighbourhood will have autonomy and control over the management and use of their space, including cellular meeting spaces.

In University areas, storage solutions will separate open plan spaces and desks can have screen dividers for privacy and noise cancellation. The ceiling incorporates rafts to control acoustics, and members of each neighbourhood will co-define working etiquette to enable all to work effectively in the space, maximising opportunities provided by the new spaces.

Cellular rooms

There are 60 additional cellular rooms across the neighbourhoods, providing flexible space for those based in each neighbourhood to use as desired. These will not be bookable centrally. They include a range of sizes suited to different uses, with flexibility for each neighbourhood to define how they are managed.

Cycle parking

There are 45 cycle spaces provided securely inside the building and includes an accessible bike parking space.  Further secure cycle storage is anticipated in the vicinity of the building.

Showers

There are six showers, including one accessible and one ambulant shower.

Drying areas

A drying area for wet clothes is situated directly beside the showering facilities.

Lockers

Secure lockers are conveniently provided near the shower and drying areas. Lockers are also available in each neighbourhood.

Water filling station

Situated on the ground floor, a dedicated water filling station is available to refill water bottles etc. 

Caring room

A caring room is situated on the ground floor, providing a private space with comfortable seating and facilities including sink, fridge and microwave.

Toilets

There are 69 toilets in total across the building, including 12 accessible toilets, eight ambulant toilets and one Changing Places toilet. Changing Places are fully accessible toilets designed so that they provide sufficient space and equipment for people who are not able to use the toilet independently.

More information is available at Changing Places Toilets (changing-places.org)

Freezers, archive room and photovoltaic panels

There is a restricted access archive space and freezer room on the roof of the building, alongside photovoltaic panels for renewable energy generation and other building plant.

The third floor has a dedicated video studio to support the promotion and sharing of research and innovation and creation of teaching content.