UCL at Here East is a high-tech research, robotics and testing centre in East London, developed jointly by The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. The new campus will be home to a range of cutting-edge degree programmes from several UCL departments.

Occupying 6,000 sqm, the new space includes a 2,000 sqm robotics and advanced prototyping space alongside new teaching facilities, studios, labs and workshops, as well as the new Bartlett Real Estate Institute.

New UCL programmes based at Here East include the undergraduate Engineering with Architectural Design MEng, as well as a range of innovative Master’s programmes such as the Design, Disability and Innovation MSc from the Global Disability Innovation Hub.

High-tech facilities at Here East include environmental chambers and structural testing rigs, robotic cells and fabrication equipment. These have been designed to operate in tandem with existing workshop facilities in Bloomsbury, allowing The Bartlett to offer its students an even broader architectural education.

The space makes it possible for us to develop ways to intervene in the built environment at extreme scales, from full-scale construction components to tele-robotic engineering at a cellular level, through to the valuation of the intangible aspects of the built environment that will help investors create public good.The space makes it possible for us to develop ways to intervene in the built environment at extreme scales, from full-scale construction components to tele-robotic engineering at a cellular level, through to the valuation of the intangible aspects of the built environment that will help investors create public good.The space makes it possible for us to develop ways to intervene in the built environment at extreme scales, from full-scale construction components to tele-robotic engineering at a cellular level, through to the valuation of the intangible aspects of the built environment that will help investors create public good.The space makes it possible for us to develop ways to intervene in the built environment at extreme scales, from full-scale construction components to tele-robotic engineering at a cellular level, through to the valuation of the intangible aspects of the built environment that will help investors create public good.Alan Penn, Dean of The Bartlett


UCL at Here East is the final phase in Hawkins\Brown Architects’ six-year partnership with UCL Estates and The Bartlett (following the rebuilding of 22 Gordon Street in Bloomsbury), as part of the Transforming UCL programme. Andrew Grainger, Director of UCL Estates, said:

Here East is the big first step in UCL’s growing presence in the Olympic Park, and an important part of the Transforming UCL capital programme. There is great excitement with this expansion and the ways it can support UCL to develop its teaching and research facilities for The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. This building provides a great new environment with large-scale flexible and innovative spaces supporting collaborative learning and cutting-edge research.

The site at Here East is shared by the following academic groups at UCL:

UCL East

UCL at Here East is only the start of the University’s presence in Stratford, East London. UCL East, which will be located south of the Aquatics Centre and the ArcelorMittal Orbit, is due to open in 2021-2022. Paola Lettieri, Academic Director for UCL East, said:

Here East is the first step in UCL’s growing presence on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is an embodiment of our ambitions for our new UCL East campus, the largest single expansion of UCL since the University was founded nearly 200 years ago. Through Here East and our UCL East campus as a whole, we are creating a radical model for how a university can be embedded in the community, providing world-leading research, education, entrepreneurship and innovation.

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Images: © Richard Stonehouse and Tim Crocker

UCL at Here East in the media