Teaching & Learning Hub, University of Nottingham

What conditions influence teaching and learning, and how can building design have a positive influence on these important goals? Continuing their commitment to independent testing of their designs’ effectiveness, Make Architects commissioned ZZA to research users’ experience of teaching and learning in their award-winning hub at University of Nottingham’s University Park campus. The five-storey 6,200m² building, designed to a searching brief, opened for use in the 2018-19 academic year.

ZZA’s research for Make – covering the building’s seminar, lecture theatre, performing arts space, and rich menu of ‘self-study’ settings, and encompassing the base build and fit-out – evidenced the impact of the building’s design attributes in realising the project’s key objective to promote knowledge transfer and absorption.

The output contributes to Make’s evidence base on good design for higher education buildings and also the commercial sector, given that every organization wants their space to have a positive role in facilitating intelligence and insight.