A high quality learning environment is essential for stimulating minds and enabling students to achieve their full potential

The best buildings can enable this, assisting with high achievement and attracting the teachers who can help to deliver a world class learning experience to their students.

From “getting the basics right”, with high quality ventilation, daylight, and simple controls, through to innovative designs, we bring our experience and skills from over a hundred school projects in the last decade to benefit the generations of tomorrow.

Services we offer



Higher Education Consulting

brightspot, Buro Happold’s higher education consulting group, is on a mission to make colleges and universities more engaging and equitable.

Together with our clients, we increase student success, improve research support, and enable staff productivity while making institutions more efficient and effective.

We help our clients by conducting research, developing strategic plans, designing student services, analysing spaces and services, and programming and planning buildings and campuses – and we integrate complementary skills and services from Buro Happold in economics, analytics, technology, sustainability and engineering.

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Campus map

Select one of the tags on the map below to find some of our project highlights for that building typography

Engineering

Business and Management Schools

Arts and Culture

Scientific Research

20th Century Refurbishment

Libraries and Learning Centres

Masterplans

Sports Facilities

Academic and Support Offices

Heritage Refurbishment

Teaching and Learning

Sustainability, Energy and Infrastructure

Catering and Hospitality

Student Social Hubs

Student Residence

Industry Partnerships

Project Highlights

Aerial shot of Yale University, Residential Colleges

Outstanding education and minimal carbon impact

Yale University, Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College

This new 460,000ft² residential college comprises two buildings housing student residences, dining areas, and additional academic and administrative facilities. Buro Happold provided MEP and sustainability consulting services throughout the project to minimize its carbon impact on the campus, and ensured it achieved a LEED-NC Gold rating.

We provided complete BIM across both buildings to produce all the MEP, IT and security documentation required for the later construction phases of the project, creating a streamlined, efficient building programme that reduced the development’s impact on wider campus operations and kept the project on budget for our client.

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World-class sustainable facility enabling great science and a community hub

Brown University, Engineering Research Center

This new 80,000ft² academic and research building for the Brown University Engineering Research Center was part of a plan to increase faculty by 30 per cent, focusing on the areas of micro-nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, energy and the environment and entrepreneurial education. Buro Happold provided integrated engineering services including structural, MEP, lighting design and energy modelling.

Through a seamless engineering approach, the team maximized the performance of the various building systems to create an innovative facility worthy of the distinguished engineering institution.

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Flexibility: the future of engineering

UCL at Here East, London

Here East is a new creative hub for the capital and was awarded the prestigious AJ100 Building of the Year in 2018. Based in the former International Broadcasting Centre (IBC), Here East is now home to University College London. Buro Happold delivered the original engineering design as well as working with iCity to modify and adapt the facility for its new incarnation. The design had to be flexible, encouraging the growth of both high-tech creativity and high-value employment opportunities.

To achieve this, the design team replaced the original interior with a series of mezzanine floors and the windowless building envelope was removed and replaced with a fitted glass facade, maximising natural light and ventilation, creating an exceptional new space for learning.

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