What’s happening on Talbot Campus this spring/summer
As part of the Talbot Campus remodelling project, we have been upgrading some of our teaching spaces and offices across campus. This is not only to enhance our your experience of BU, but is essential work required for newly validated courses to proceed in the Autumn term. This project is vital in attracting students, as well as supporting our faculties with teaching and research.
We are commencing our second phase of this project which will see Weymouth House transformed to provide a hub for student activity on its ground floor, as well as co-locating some services on the third floor. We will also be carrying out works in Poole House in order to create additional and improved teaching and learning facilities required to accommodate newly validated programmes, an open plan space for postgraduate researchers (PGRs), and consolidated offices for the Creative Technology and Psychology teams. The last of these projects is being carried out in Christchurch House to welcome the new IT Service Desk, replacing the one currently in Weymouth House. All of these changes are crucial to our recruitment targets and ongoing commitment to enhancing students’ overall experience.
Weymouth House
Some of the benefits of this project include additional, bigger teaching facilities, better aligned with the projected group sizes, an improved identity for the Faculty of Media & Communication on Talbot Campus, an active and vibrant ground floor, the development of a student support hub on the third floor, and the provision of space for postgraduate researchers to enhance their learning opportunities and improve their sense of belonging. All of these changes will contribute to a more efficient and sustainable use of our space within Weymouth House, by co-locating activities together, especially out of hours.
This redevelopment is a major project to deliver specialist student facilities for the Department of Communication & Journalism and for students engaged with radio production from across the faculty – evidencing our commitment to enhancing the student experience at BU.
This includes a plan for moving the Learning Development and Support and Placement teams to the third floor to create a student support hub along with the Programme Support team, which is already based on this floor. Other colleagues are moving to the fourth floor to accommodate these changes.
The most high-profile change for staff and students will be the IT Service Desk move in the first week of May, which will see the Service Desk move from the ground floor of Weymouth House to Christchurch House ground floor.
There will be a walk around for any staff or students who may be disproportionately affected by these changes due to accessibility needs.
Teams will be moving from May to accommodate the ground floor works starting around 3 June 2024, with the aim to complete the project before the start of semester one in September 2024.
There are works happening on all floors of Poole House, some of which have already started, and some will continue into the summer months. These are focused on provision of additional and improvement of the existing teaching facilities, co-locating teams to achieve more efficient space utilisation and engender greater peer engagement opportunities for colleagues and PGRs.
On the ground floor, we have created a space to accommodate Computing & Informatics PGRs.
On the first floor, we will be consolidating the Psychology team’s offices. This means the offices on this floor will be exclusively for Psychology staff, allowing for closer working and greater opportunities for collaboration.
In the summer, we will be redeveloping the area above Dylan’s for the Creative Technology department to provide them with an open plan working and modern office environment. This will also include co-location of some staff from Design & Engineering on the second and third floors, and Computing & Informatics on the third floor.
Teaching and learning facilities on the fourth floor will be improved by creating additional teaching spaces, including a non-faculty specific seminar room and a faculty computer lab.
The works on the fifth floor of Poole House will comprise the development of an open plan space for research activities, with a mix of fixed desks and hot desking for PGRs. It will also have the added benefit of freeing up space on the lower floors to support staff office moves, which will then enable the development of new teaching spaces on the fourth floor.
The works to transform four separate rooms on the fifth floor into one collaborative research space started in late March and will continue until the start of May.
If you have any questions regarding the project, please contact Marcin Grabowski for further information.
Christchurch House
Works have commenced in Christchurch House to develop a new IT Service Desk, to replace the current IT Service Desk based in Weymouth House.
Thank you to colleagues who have supported this move by relocating, temporarily or permanently.
This project started on Monday 22 April and is due to be completed in late May. There will very little disruption to anyone working in this building.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Russell Evans.
