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UCL East: Marshgate handover

By Benjamin Meunier, on 22 March 2023

After a rather wet start to the day, the skies brightened up over the Olympic Park last Friday afternoon, just in time for the handover ceremony where building contractors Mace handed over the keys to UCL East’s latest addition – Marshgate.

View of Marshgate building. The edge of the London Stadium is visible in the right-hand corner, dwarfed by the cube-shaped Marshgate.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the occasion, which was described officially in the UCL News, where the significance of the milestone is described. I am taking this opportunity to share my reflections on the building and amateurish photos of the library and learning spaces…

Firstly, it is monumental – as described in the press release – “the biggest structure on any of UCL’s campuses, measuring six times the size of the UCL Student Centre”. It is very much a statement, right next to the London Stadium, placing UCL at the heart of East Bank – the cultural district that is intended as the 2012 Olympics’ legacy.

But size isn’t everything, of course. I was wowed by the grandeur of the atrium space, which even unfurnished and empty of students and staff, had a warmth and sense of conviviality you would not expect from an exposed concrete building. The main foyer will host public art exhibitions, to welcome and provoke visitors to the campus.

View up into the atrium, looking towards glazed roof

Base of escalator, adjacent to concrete wall with sign up to Level 2 Hub, Library, Refectory and Students' Union UCL

Past the main gates on the ground floor, a huge escalator leads directly to the Hub, where the Library is sited alongside the Refectory and near a small Students’ Union office.

Wooden helpdesk with "Hello" carved in the front of the desk, Hub in big black letters on the wall behind the desk

Well, hello, Hub! At the top of the escalator, a welcoming helpdesk is positioned for dealing with initial enquiries from students. Immediately adjacent to the desk, the entrance to the Library beckons, with views onto the London Stadium adorned with the West Ham United crest. The Library entrance is also the site of the main student helpdesk in the building, which can be seen through the glazed doors.

The Library space is mostly unfurnished, but the space feels light and airy, and the views onto the stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbital are breath-taking. I can imagine library users will be inspired in these spaces, with the UCL East Library becoming a fine addition to our department. The interior design has been informed by the Student Centre Architects (Nicholas Hare Architects) and LCCOS colleagues from Facilities & Projects and the UCL East Oversight Group. My impression was that the extensive care, thought and effort invested in the project will pay off in creating a wide range of spaces, both in the Library – for different types of quiet study – and in the main atrium of the building for social learning and group work. I was only able to spend a short amount of time on site, but it felt like a very special place and I hope it will prove to be a favoured destination for staff and users once it opens under the care of the UCL East Library team!

View of learning spaces in the library, looking down from the mezzanine View of study desks with London Stadium and the Orbit in the background through the windows Learning space looking onto the ArcelorMittal Orbit through the window View of study carrels

I focused on the library space, but there is a lot more to the Hub and to the building as a whole. The snap below of the floor plan in the building gives a sense of the wide range of academic activity which is being primed to launch in Marshgate. This really will provide the growth space for UCL to develop multi-disciplinary research and teaching. The new research facilities on the site span robotics, sustainable cities, culture, disability and heritage – in an environment that will encourage researchers and students to cross between disciplines and seek answers to the world’s big questions.

This was a huge project, led by academic colleague with support from a range of professional services staff and external partners. It was a privilege to be involved in this historic development for the university. As the handover ceremony speeches emphasised, a project on this scale cannot be attributed to any individual or even group of individuals. Many of the colleagues at the event observed informally that this is not the kind of building that we expect to deliver – it really is beyond the size, and above the quality benchmark that we are accustomed to. But it is absolutely the kind of facility that UCL, at its best, is capable of delivering, on a par with the Student Centre (but 6 times bigger, I am told). Marshgate will encourage the building’s users to operate at their very best and will attract researchers, students, staff and members of the public from far and wide… UCL is a great university, and Marshgate provides a showcase for the greatness within the institution!

Directory sign showing the different academic spaces within the building, floors -1 to 8. At the centre of the sign are pictograms of 2 large escalators connecting the Hub on Level 2 to the ground floor and Level 4 Project Space

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