UCL Estates appointed Burwell to develop a Knowledge LAB for the Institute of Education. The brief was to provide UCL with a facility where teaching, technology and story-telling could fuse in a research environment.

Situated on the basement floor of the Emerald Street Studio, the project features a green screen studio, motion capture space, and a series of teaching spaces directly connected with video editing, audio recording and new technologies.

A range of spatial typologies were introduced to the design, allowing for both didactic and socially collaborative learning in a highly technological environment. The new facility will enable research that improves understanding of how interactivity can be built into the digital media experience, exploring the cognitive and social bases of immersion and ‘credibility’ in mixed reality environments. Flexibility was key to the project and the option to accommodate future upgrades was worked into the concept design.