Fusion Building at Bournemouth opens

The Fusion Building at Bournemouth University is now fully open for the new academic year. BDP was architect, landscape architect and acoustic consultant for the £22m building.

The new building is the focal point on the main Talbot Campus and fuses education, research and professional practice through a mix of flexible informal study and social collaborative spaces, realising the university’s values of collaborative working and thinking. The shared facilities foster cross school activity and maximise space utilisation, to ensure the university remains competitive.

The 6,000 sqm academic building is topped with a glass dome, allowing maximum natural light into the building. It houses 27 seminar rooms, three lecture theatres, research space, a 24 station PC laboratory, outdoor terraces and a range of catering facilities.

The building has been designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent as a minimum and includes ground source heat pumps, rainwater harvesting tanks, photovoltaic solar panels and sensor lighting.

The new building has allowed the university to continue its vision to create a modern, state-of-the-art university with world class academic buildings and outstanding facilities for staff and students. Jim Andrews, the university's Chief Operating Officer commented: “This building creates an opportunity to demonstrate fusion in action right at the heart of the Talbot site and I hope all staff, students and members of the community explore and enjoy this amazing new space.”