Future Classrooms and SMART Teaching

Rock Townsend is currently working with the University of Westminster on a five-year programme of ‘Future Classroom’ refurbishments designed to facilitate SMART teaching. The programme started with 25 refurbishments in the summer of 2015 and will continue with a further 42 this summer.

News_FutureClassroomsAndSMARTTeaching.jpg

In a recent article in universitybusiness.co.uk Professor Gunter Saunders, Director of Internet and Education Technology Services, and Federica Oradini, Senior Lecturer in e-Learning, both from the University of Westminster, describe the project and how it will support SMART teaching.

The project responds to the fact that the internet and digital technologies, whilst having a transformational impact on many other industries, has not had a significant impact on teaching in universities.  

SMART teaching is aimed at making technology part of the physical space to enable students to become active participants in their classroom learning. The environment must be adaptable and enhanced by technology to give students the ‘props’ that let them experiment and learn from each other.

We worked closely with the university and each faculty to develop designs that accommodate and encourage this teaching whilst being appropriate to the context of each subject.

To learn more about the future classrooms project and SMART teaching read the full article here.

Trout Road West Drayton Starts on Site

  

 

Rock Townsend’s 44-unit scheme of homes for affordable rent, with Paradigm Housing and Taylor French, has just started on site.

The brownfield site on Trout Road is at the centre of a wider masterplan to reshape this area of West Drayton into a residential neighbourhood close to the existing High Street and train links.  A total of 44 one, two and three bedroom affordable rented apartments are arranged around a raised courtyard and two cores. 

The development at Trout Road is one of several affordable housing and shared ownership projects we are currently working on. View more of our residential projects here.

Berghaus HQ in the Press

News_BerghausHQInOnOffice.jpg

Our refurbishment of the Berghaus Headquarters in Sunderland has been featured in the April issue of OnOffice. Written by Jenny Brewer, the article explores how the project integrates Berghaus’s sense of adventure to create ‘a varied environment supportive of interaction and creativity’.

The project forms part of an exciting body of refurbishment and fit-out work completed by Rock Townsend in the past year that explores the integration of brand into modern working environments. Each project goes further than a one-dimensional application of corporate identity and instead translates the cultural DNA of the client and users into every aspect of the design.

The Berghaus Headquarters celebrates the excitement of the outdoors in both the architectural details, such as the sky rail storage solution and climbing rope staircase, and the blurring of work and social spaces, such as the Base Camp which enables staff to live the culture of adventure in the way they work.

Together with recent refurbishments for Lacoste in Paris and for the University of Westminster on the Harrow Library and the Psychology Department, the latter recently awarded FX International Interior Project of the Year in the Public Sector category, these projects represent powerful examples of what can be achieved with the creative reuse of existing buildings.

The projects have been delivered by a group of talented young designers in the studio who have developed an architectural language that is bold, that enhances the positive aspects of existing buildings, embodies brand in a meaningful way and adopts an inventiveness that makes spaces work in unexpected and engaging ways.

Read more about the project here, and the full OnOffice article here.

“We wanted to pick up on the journey of the product. There’s amazing experimentation and technology going on and it should be celebrated. If someone comes for a meeting now, they’re part of the experience, and it’s a great avert for them.”
— Tim Robinson, Project Architect
“We need to attract the best talent. Once you’ve got somewhere like this, it’s an inspirational place to work and you get staff retention.”
— Katie Greenyer, Creative Director Pentland Brands