Celebrating one year of UCL Laws successes since returning to Bentham House
26 March 2019
Since moving into the newly renovated Bentham House in March 2018, our students, staff and even the building itself have accomplished an impressive range of awards and achievements.
Today marks the one-year anniversary since UCL Laws once again opened the doors of Bentham House to over 100 members of staff and 1000 students following a major three-year redevelopment.
Bentham House has given the Faculty an inspiring environment in which to further develop our world-leading research, teaching and social enterprise. Over the past year since returning, our staff and students alike have achieved a huge number of accomplishments; intellectually stimulating events have been hosted, making full use of the new space to spark engagement and debate; and the building in which our Faculty activity takes place has been recognised for its high quality design.
On this important anniversary, we look back on some of the past year's achievements in our new home. For the more stories, please visit the links in the text below or take a look at our News page.
Students, and student space, were always at the very heart of the project. The redevelopment has truly given students a bright and welcoming space to learn and study alongside one another, as well as come together, relax, and socialise.
It’s been an impressive year for student awards and achievements, with Bentham House providing an environment for an extraordinary student experience beyond the classroom.
Earlier this month, UCL Laws students, their guests, academics, staff and sponsors came together in the new Gideon Schreier Lecture Theatre to celebrate our students’ achievements at the annual Prizewinners Ceremony.
The UCL Law Society, which represents the undergraduate students of the Faculty and hosts a range of networking, careers and social events in Bentham House, won Best Society for First-Year Students at the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards.
Students have also successfully competed in a range of competitions. Final year law students Neeva Desai and Robert Shu secured victory for UCL at the Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Moot; LLB students Alex Goodman and Sonja Dragomir reached the finals of the National Client Interviewing Competition 2019; and UCL Laws alumna Firoza Dodhi won the IBE Student Essay Competition in Business Ethics 2018.
Last but not least, Bentham House itself has also been awarded this year. In January 2019, the building was granted an ‘Excellent’ certification under BREEAM, the construction industry’s leading environmental assessment scheme, due in large part to the many design elements that ensure energy performance is around one third better than regulatory requirements. The project was also shortlisted for the prestigious Architecture Journal’s Retrofit Award in the Higher Education category.
The imaginative redesign of Bentham House was created by architects Levitt Bernstein, in collaboration with UCL Laws and UCL Estates as part of Transforming UCL, the largest capital programme in the university’s history.
We look forward to another year of success with the UCL Laws community!