leader


Lifting the spirits


UNIVERSITIES have so much to offer their students. Intellectual stimulation, friendships, opportunities to develop as people and a degree that should open many doors. Yet it is a sad and sobering fact that the number of students disclosing a mental health condition has risen by 500% in the past 10 years, and 100% of colleges have students suffering from depression.


Much of the discussion at our recent hee forum centred on how buildings should be designed to help ameliorate the crippling pressures many students experience, and what can be done throughout the university estate generally to promote a sense of wellbeing.


First-class carbon reduction


The Rothermere American Institute was one of the buildings at Oxford University praised by judges of this year’s Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers Awards, held to recognise exceptional building performance.


Story page 16 Image: Dan Paton


Time and again we heard, the factors that need to be in place are good natural lighting, clean air and contact with nature. We were told that office workers who sit near windows get 46 minutes more sleep each night. And we learnt that students these days are less interested in well-stocked bars than spaces where they can relax, either in company or alone, and work, either by themselves or collaboratively.


The Atkins human-centred design process is a template for how design should respond to human needs. And one of these strong needs is teaching in buildings that allow students to blend “learning and earning”, or in other words buildings that introduce students to business and industry far earlier than with previous generations. These days, students quite rightly expect a lot for their money, and top of the list is becoming employable when they graduate.


Editor Andrew Pring


Sales director Julian Walter


Production Gina Mitchell


Design Sandra Cid


Managing director Toby Filby


The challenge for universities is how to equip their charges for the jobs of the future when so many of those jobs have yet to be invented. It certainly prompts the question, when the world is changing so fast, why build for 50 year durations?


Future-proofing university estates is, inevitably, an inexact science – futurologists as a profession have worse predictive powers than economists. But the direction of travel is clear: we have to become better at understanding exactly how our buildings shape our feelings, and how we can design structures that inspire and support in equal measure. From what was heard at our hee forum, we are very much on the right road.


Publishers Stable Publishing Limited, SBC House, Restmor Way, Wallington, Surrey SM6 7AH, England. t. 020 8288 1080 f. 020 8288 1099 e. sales@educationdab.co.uk


The publishers do not necessarily agree with views expressed by contributors and cannot accept responsibility for claims made by manufacturers and authors, nor do they accept any responsibility for any errors in the subject matter of this publication.


Andrew Pring Editor


andrew@stable-media.co.uk highereducationestates 3


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