- Location
- Middlesbrough
- Sectors
- Higher Education
Digital Life was conceived as a new landmark for Teesside University’s School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, with a 500-person flexible event space and an ambition to achieve BREEAM Outstanding. The landscape needed to connect the building with Student Life, Campus Heart and the future Knowledge Square, while expressing a project identity based on the relationship between technology, creativity and nature.
ONE worked directly with Wates Construction and Hawkins Brown Architects, building on Hawkins Brown’s early concept work to develop the ‘Digital Forest’ as the organising landscape idea. Movement and occupancy studies informed a strong north-south campus street and central arrival plaza.
Biophilic planting, dynamic lighting, a roof terrace, cycle facilities, levels and servicing were coordinated with the wider architectural and engineering design, and the soft landscape was developed with ecology input to support biodiversity objectives.
A faceted ribbon bench provides inclusive seating and a robust edge to planting, with its geometry referencing digital polygon meshes.
Specimen trees are interwoven with illuminated ‘Light Sticks’ to play with the verticality and dappled light of a forest, while a distinctive Digital Forest Floor helps passive wayfinding and frames the main entrance.
The project works because the digital idea is embedded in how the landscape performs. Technology is not applied as decoration. It supports wayfinding, animation and identity, while trees, planting and places to pause provide comfort, wellbeing and a human counterpoint to the building’s digital programme.
Outcome
The completed public realm gives Digital Life a recognisable campus address and supports movement, informal collaboration and student life between major university spaces. The wider building achieved BREEAM Outstanding, with the landscape contributing to a sustainability-led and biophilic campus environment.
Project Highlights
- Higher Education
- Campus Public Realm
- Digital Forest
- Biophilic Design & Ecology
- Dynamic Lighting & Wayfinding
- 500-Person Flexible Event Space
- BREEAM Outstanding
More images
12 images in this project
Projects
similar one projects
Durham University – Maths and Computer Science Building
The Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science Building required a landscape that could make a large new academic building feel connected to its campus setting…
Shotley Bridge Hospital
Healthcare landscapes must support people who may be anxious, unwell or unfamiliar with the site while also meeting the operational needs of a working clinical environment.
