Research and Debate Space Centre for Innovation

The University of Bristol offers a Joint Honours Degree from the Arts Faculty’s Centre for Innovation, for students wishing to broaden their studies with a discipline specialism across 11 degree courses within four Faculties, eg Maths with Innovation. Following OA's work with the Arts & Social Science Library, we were asked to design the new home for the Centre for Innovation within the University’s Richmond Building focusing on offering a combination of primary teaching spaces and informal student research and debate spaces.

The project comprises the internal refurbishment and re-organisation of an open plan office space with some cellular offices to provide a new teaching space for under graduates and post-graduates.

To maximise the potential for the primary teaching space we devised a modular ‘Innovation Wall’ which incorporates 12 sqm of fold out white board space on a wall space of 4 sqm, a 48” display monitor, pin board and laptop docking point. Through I.T. support, the Innovation Walls are linked so that the discussions and teaching can be cast from one wall to another, allowing students to immediately see how others are tackling and solving the presented problem, thereby sharing ideas and creating new ones.