New directions in tertiary design

What do you think today’s students want most?

Diana: Universities are telling us students are seeking more structure around socialisation. They’ve spent a number of years learning from home, with limited contact with their peers in person. They’re looking for activities and get-togethers with other students, so we’re seeing the re-emergence of clubs. They create a purpose to physically come together – an important part of campus life.

Students are generally time-poor, balancing work and study. Housing availability is also generally low for them. This means they’re being drawn back to campus living. It’s seen as more efficient to be there, with living, learning and work all within easy reach. Along with a sense of community, these are important elements to students today.

Marina: The old saying, ‘people attract people,’ still rings true. And it’s our role as the social engineers of spaces to bring people together. We’ve all seen the blurring of the lines between our work, social, home and learning lives, especially on our campuses.

Living, learning and now industry are increasingly present, catapulting academic research into our communities.

We’re finding students care about their environment now more than ever, and the experiences they want to have on campus. They’re not just looking for spaces to learn, but a place to feel at home. There’s a reason that most of the university stays open for more than just 26 weeks a year, and our job is so to enhance every moment.

“Universities are returning to the age where they were not just academic but public institutions. They are the beating heart of their broader precincts.”

It’s so rewarding to be designing beautiful backdrops for some of the most formative experiences of students’ lives – from O Week to making friends in cafes and bars, to breakthrough moments in labs, all the way to their graduation ceremony.

It’s also easier than ever to get a sense of what they’re looking for now. Today’s students love to document their lives on social media, and that includes their life on campus. We’re flooded with amazing content from students enjoying the spaces we’ve designed. That gives us a much deeper understanding of the spaces they gravitate to – places they feel at home and enjoy using.

Hybrid work models are now commonplace. What changes are you seeing in the tertiary sector? How are spaces being designed for greater flexibility in the workplace?

Diana: The pandemic has proven that we can work, learn and, in many cases, teach from home or other third spaces. For the most part, gone are the days where we were tethered to a physical location.

It’s clear that a hybrid model is being supported, with many of our clients offering their people flexibility around their work styles. That means they can focus on what works best from social, collaborative, space use, and economic perspectives.

In our work within the tertiary and other workplace sectors, we’ve noticed a more varied rhythm of work.

“Spaces need to be flexible, agile and adaptable, sometimes on an immediate basis, to support varied workstyles, team dynamics and individual preferences.”

This is resulting in considered, modular planning and design, at both the macro and micro levels. We can offer spaces that allow people to choose what’s right for their task.

Marina: We’re seeing a confluence of three factors: technology enabling a more flexible way of working, environmental responsibility demanding we minimise our carbon footprint, and economic drivers challenging us to use space more efficiently. The result is new and more flexible workplaces.

“The reality is there’s still a need for dedicated workspaces such as wet or dry labs. But we’re seeing an uptake of flexible work among professional and academic staff, which unlocks a greater amount of space.”

In the private sector, while single ownership offices still exist, we’re finding that they become shared resources for the team when they’re not being used by the occupant.

Space utilisation was previously a critical discussion for data nerds (like me) but it’s now part of the social and environmental agenda, creating thriving, engaging interactions, while minimising construction and our carbon footprint.

There’s a big focus on net-zero across the industry. How can tertiary facilities lower their carbon footprint?

Marina: Ultimately, we need to be building less and reusing more, and what we are building needs to be smarter. We know that great adaptive reuse can lead to significant carbon savings and great design outcomes.

There are many ways we’re seeing these trends play out in the tertiary space. One is through the materials we use and prefabrication. There’s a natural efficiency with prefabricated materials, with added flow-on benefits for universities.

For example, by maximising construction work offsite, there are fewer disruptions to university life, along with the added environmental benefit of minimising waste and improving the quality of construction.

“We’ve done studies for universities on the staging of campus redevelopment. It’s like a game of chess – you can’t move anything without thinking ten steps ahead, and sometimes you need to sacrifice a knight to take the queen.”

We’re also looking at where energy is coming from in our buildings. We recently completed a project to de-carbonise an entire campus to help achieve their net zero target by 2035. It was an exercise in urban design — almost like urban acupuncture.

We had to find exact points on campus where these major energy hub interventions would service the surrounding buildings, enabling them to be electrified while also contributing to the character of the precincts. A lot of value-add spaces are piggy-backed onto these hubs. That includes bike parking, all-gender amenities, end-of-trip and baby change facilities, plus services to support the broader precinct.

Diana: Buildings and spaces with good bones are being reused, repurposed and reimagined through dramatic transformations. At the same time, new buildings are being assessed for their ability to flex and adapt for the future.

“It’s important we design buildings for a long life, well beyond opening day.”

We’re seeing increased interest in interdisciplinary, mixed-use learning, teaching and research space. There’s also a push to find innovative ways to make old spaces more flexible, to transform formal areas to informal zones, and to create multi-purpose circulation and peer-to-peer learning spaces.

Previously, large-scale, tiered didactic lecture theatres were a regular feature of campuses. From a refurbishment perspective and due to pedagogical changes in the tertiary sector, we’re regularly seeing these spaces become redundant. There’s just so much potential there.

These are often large and prominently positioned on the campus. They are perfect candidates for transforming into flat floor or tiered collaborative spaces and other non-formal social or student support spaces.