Skip to main content
Navigate back to homepage
Open search bar.
Open main navigation menu

Main navigation

  • Study
    UCL Portico statue
    Study at UCL

    Being a student at UCL is about so much more than just acquiring knowledge. Studying here gives you the opportunity to realise your potential as an individual, and the skills and tools to thrive.

    • Undergraduate courses
    • Graduate courses
    • Short courses
    • Study abroad
    • Centre for Languages & International Education
  • Research
    Tree-of-Life-MehmetDavrandi-UCL-EastmanDentalInstitute-042_2017-18-800x500-withborder (1)
    Research at UCL

    Find out more about what makes UCL research world-leading, how to access UCL expertise, and teams in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement).

    • Engage with us
    • Explore our Research
    • Initiatives and networks
    • Research news
  • Engage
    UCL Print room
    Engage with UCL

    Discover the many ways you can connect with UCL, and how we work with industry, government and not-for-profit organisations to tackle tough challenges.

    • Alumni
    • Business partnerships and collaboration
    • Global engagement
    • News and Media relations
    • Public Policy
    • Schools and priority groups
    • Visit us
  • About
    UCL welcome quad
    About UCL

    Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from 150 different countries.

    • Who we are
    • Faculties
    • Governance
    • President and Provost
    • Strategy
  • Active parent page: The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
    • Study
    • Research
    • Our schools and institutes
    • People
    • Ideas
    • Engage
    • Active parent page: News and Events
    • About

UCL Provost makes first visit to Here East

Delegates from various UCL departments, Hawkins\Brown, London Loughborough University, Mace and Paragon Interiors joined UCL's President and Provost, Michael Arthur, on his first tour of Here East.

2 November 2016

Michael Arthur at Here East

Breadcrumb trail

  • The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
  • News and Events

Faculty menu

  • Current page: News
  • Events

Introducing the event, Here East's CEO Gavin Poole spoke of the five-year "journey" in which the space had been transformed from empty warehouse to a digital university campus. 

He highlighted the recent progress made in filling vacant space at the site, including the opening of an Innovation Centre - opposite UCL's space - with room to house "dozens" of tech start-ups.

Poole said that 4,000 people would be based at Here East by the end of 2017, many of whom would come from the local area. Forty-eight per cent of Here East's workforce lives within 10 minutes walk from the site.

The main UCL Here East unit will focus on teaching, learning and research space. This includes an event/exhibition space and studio space while housing numerous chambers for research and a large-scale area for robotics for the School of Architecture. 

There will also a number of laboratories that will be used by the Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering as well as the Institute for Sustainable Heritage.

From September 2017, UCL Here East will also be home to the new Bartlett Real Estate Institute. The institute will rethink the traditional view of real estate, taking a multidisciplinary approach to identifying, researching and solving real-world problems.

Digital focus

The Dean of the Bartlett, Professor Alan Penn, outlined the process by which UCL ended up choosing the site. While it was once expected that the future of Built Environment studies would be digitally-focused - with students and researchers clustered around computer screens, rather than physical projects - the increasing importance of robotics to the industry now meant the opposite was becoming true. 

Large volume spaces are required - and large volume space is becoming increasingly scarce in central London. 

Penn added that a "whole realm" of environmental testing chambers would be available at the site - allowing for real-life testing of how environments and people respond to changes in temperature, light and other external factors.

The site would present "revolutionary" opportunities for UCL to deliver training across professional boundaries and encourage creative collaboration. 

A bold vision

Stuart Robson, UCL's head of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, echoed Penn's enthusiasm for the project, highlighting how the Here East site represented a "fantastic opportunity ... to build a community on UCL's interdisciplinarity and breadth of vision".

Hawkins\Brown's Euan MacDonald then delivered a presentation on the architecture firm's vision for the site, illustrating how the "grey and white box" of the vacant Olympic Park Media Centre was being "transformed" into a rich, diverse, digital space.

MacDonald said it had been a hugely challenging building to work on, particularly with its lack of natural light, but by separating it out into designated spaces Hawkins\Brown had been able to deliver an exciting and innovative space that represented a "natural alignment" between the goals of Here East and UCL.

  • Read the Provost's View on the Here East visit
  • UCL's space at Here East is due to open next summer, with students starting during the 2017/18 academic year

Welcome to Here East

Link

Find out about our new, East London campus

UCL footer

Visit

  • Bloomsbury Theatre and Studio
  • Library, Museums and Collections
  • UCL Maps
  • UCL Shop
  • Contact UCL

Students

  • Accommodation
  • Current Students
  • Moodle
  • Students' Union

Staff

  • Inside UCL
  • Staff Intranet
  • Work at UCL
  • Human Resources

UCL social media menu

  • Link to Soundcloud
  • Link to Flickr
  • Link to TikTok
  • Link to Youtube
  • Link to Instagram
  • Link to Facebook
  • Link to Twitter

University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 2000

© 2025 UCL

Essential

  • Disclaimer
  • Freedom of Information
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Slavery statement
  • Log in