Refurbishing and improving teaching spaces across UCL

Teams from Estates, Information Services Division (ISD), and Timetabling Services have been working on a rolling refresh programme, improving teaching spaces over the summer and throughout the year. This work is part of improvements outlined in the Inclusive Environments Action Plan, and the Estates Strategy and Vision.

An underpinning principle of the Estates Vision is to make critical improvements to accessibility and inclusivity, and part of how we’re putting plans into action is by providing more adjustable furniture and making teaching spaces more accessible. 

This summer, 16 centrally bookable teaching rooms and one new student social space were refurbished, which included installing new Audio-Visual technology, furniture, and power sockets. Teams also added power assisted doors and widened doorways in teaching rooms and corridors, and all rooms that are big enough to qualify for MobileConnect have had the system installed as standard.

These improvements follow the 24 rooms refurbished in summer 2024, which were well-received by room users, with 85% of survey respondents who’d used the spaces previously agreeing that the refurbishments had improved the rooms.

Improvements over the past 12 months

• More ergonomic and inclusive furniture
• Design for the Mind
• New technologies and future proofing spaces
• Increasing touchdown spaces
• Keeping our commitment to sustainability

More ergonomic and inclusive furniture

As part of the rolling refresh programme, there has been ongoing work to introduce height adjustable tables to seminar rooms across the teaching estate and increase the number of wheelchair user spaces and height adjustable benching in lecture theatres. Plus, over 200 height adjustable stools have been introduced to classrooms for lecturers to use. As a standard for new projects, 10% of writing tables in teaching spaces are left-handed.

To ensure those who need accessible furniture have access to it, the Teaching Spaces team has introduced stickers that encourage room users to be mindful of those who may need ergonomic furniture, and to discourage people from removing accessible furniture from teaching rooms. This initiative relies on support from the whole UCL community to make sure that accessible furniture remains in its allocated classroom.

Additionally, Estates hosted a ‘Chair Choice Challenge’ pop-up earlier this year, where staff and students engaged with the UCL community to help inform furniture and décor choices for classrooms. Students and staff were invited to test out a selection of chairs in person and vote for their preferred options.

As well as finding out the most comfortable chair option, the team learned from students that they prefer professional and calming colours, and colours which are less likely to show stains, people's hair, and fluff. Based on this feedback, the refurbishments used a colour palette of sea-foam green, grey, and black to create environments which support learning and teaching and help students and staff focus.

““I do think calming, complementary colours work well in a teaching space. Plain white walls are cold and unmotivating.” Comment from a campus user.

Design for the Mind

To ensure the teaching spaces are designed inclusively and with room users’ wellbeing in mind, the rolling refresh programme is being executed in consultation with the Inclusive Environments team and room users.

This includes introducing more accessible furniture and using biophilic design where possible, and consulting campus users on their preferred design finishes.

The team presented users who have a disability, neurodivergence, and/or health condition with a range of acoustic baffling panels to understand which options would be most suitable. The team selected the option with the lowest proportion of negative responses – a timber-effect panel with a simple geometric design.

“Steph Glen, Head of Teaching Space Operations, said: “We are pleased with the progress that has been made with creating more inclusive, flexible, and inspiring teaching spaces. Our aim is to get to the point where inclusive rooms are standard at UCL, therefore removing the need for our users to make specific furniture requests, such as lumbar supportive seating. We want to make sure our community can start learning in an environment suitable for their requirements straight away.”

New technologies and future proofing spaces

Estates works collaboratively with the Information Services Division (ISD), with a focus on ensuring all teaching spaces are equipped to meet traditional, in-person teaching, while also providing additional technologies which enable hybrid learning and audience participation such as Panopto lecture recording.

The aim is to have a single intuitive control interface at the lectern to help lecturers run classes smoothly, and to ensure students can learn in-person and remotely.

“Sheila Egan, AV Design Principal for Teaching & Learning Spaces, said: “New technologies, such as array microphones, ensure that audio is captured for hybrid activities, while additional cameras and tracking technologies future-proof teaching spaces for multi-modal delivery, should that be required. These technologies support all faculty, discipline-based needs and ensure UCL can meet current and future pedagogic practice across the teaching estate.”

Increasing touchdown spaces

Students have shared that they want more touchdown spaces, which allow for temporary or agile working, where they can sit down and study without a prior booking or without being part of a particular department. In Estates, we’re aware there are underused areas on campus where a simple addition of furniture will help create more existence spaces.

The first new touchdown space is in Endsleigh Gardens, where the foyer now has space for 20 people to sit and study, take a call, or relax. The Faculty Estates team is working to identify more spaces like these where incremental impactful improvements such as additional furniture can help improve the campus experience.

Keeping our commitment to sustainability

In line with UCL’s commitment to sustainability, teams across UCL have also been fixing and reupholstering seating in student social spaces, to extend the furniture’s lifespan while making spaces more inviting. There has also been a project to recycle furniture by moving items to other, more appropriate spaces. For example, furniture that is no longer appropriate for teaching spaces has been moved to meeting rooms.