ABSTRACT
The Hub at Coventry University provides a dynamic new heart to the student campus and includes large-scale ‘learning commons’ and social spaces alongside student support spaces. Design Engine Architects at Oxford Brookes University incorporates student services, the Students Union, teaching spaces and a new library all gathered around the forum, a vast social learning area surrounded by cafés and retail outlets. While food or drink serveries always have to be dedicated spaces, these can be closed off from the adjacent spaces for those to be transformed into activity spaces. In the USA, this coming together of wide-ranging activities has led to some very large and complex buildings with major facilities and spaces co-located. In the UK, this form of co-location can present problems due to different funding regimes and the historical division between the university and the Students Union.
