Campus Reimagined day two round-up | Vice Chancellor outlines project vision 

A very busy day two of Campus Reimagined Live! welcomed the University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Shearer West, who outlined the importance of creating a campus that “feels like a home away from home”.

She also spoke about improving the accessibility of campus and providing more spaces for collaboration as part of her talk, which introduced the wider Campus Reimagined project.

Professor West said:

“This is an opportunity to shape our campus.

“We have these beautiful old buildings, but we face challenges in them not being suitable to the demands of a modern university.

“We want campus that feels like a home away from home for everyone, and a place that inspires our community.”

A vision for the future

Following a buzzy start on Monday, day two brought huge numbers of students and staff sharing ideas, more new insights, talking points and perspectives, all focused around rethinking the future of our campus.

Students and staff had the opportunity to hear from Prior + Partners, the design team tasked with developing a new masterplan framework for the University.

Speaking as part of a panel discussing the Campus Reimagined project, Elise Baudon, Director of Masterplanning at Prior + Partners said:

“The first thing we’re going to do is understand the place and [your] experience of it.

“We’re looking at some of those short-term wins that can change your experience of campus today alongside the longer-term work.”

University of Leeds Director of Campus Innovation and Development, Ann Allen said,  “We need to think about buildings, your requirements, places to share food, build relationships and collaborations.” And challenged the audience to think, “How can we create and develop spaces that enable you to achieve what you want to achieve?”

Creating an urban forest

In the afternoon session, Dr Cat Scott from the University’s School of Earth and Environment introduced the audience to the concept of reimagining campus as an urban forest.

She also shared findings from her team’s work surveying more than 1,000 campus trees, and spoke about the success of Gair Wood, the University’s new woodland creation project in north Leeds.

Getting from A-B should be straightforward

Elise Baudon wrapped up the day leading a discussion about a Place that Connects who gave some fascinating perspectives about how we can overcome the challenges of topography to create a more accessible and better-connected campus.

Still time to shape the future

Tomorrow will explore the themes of ‘a place to nourish’, ‘a place for everyone’ and ‘a place to work’. Come along, enjoy some popcorn , share your ideas and have your say on day three.

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