There’s a very new and fancy £27m Cov Uni engineering building opening soon

In the next weeks of March 2020 students at Coventry University will see the opening of the brand new engineering building that will go by the name of Beatrice Shilling, named after the renowned British aeronautical engineer.

The third new building to be designed by Broadway Malyan for CU will focus on providing STEM outreach and enterprise activities.

It will be linked to the current ECB via a covered bridge that connects the ground floor of ECB to the second floor of Beatrice Shilling.

The Coventry Tab had the opportunity to take a sneak peek into the state-of-the-art complex boasting an open plan full height central atrium configured to promote group study space, as well as plenty of capacity for individual and collaborative working environments.

Blue accents complement the easy on the eye and calming feel of  this new space. Upon entry, you can immediately see the focus was shifted to creating a spacious and comfortable feel, contrary to ECB’s slightly cramped arrangement.

This emphasis can be seen in the way seating arrangements have been made. There is a wide array of group seating (i.e. desk workstations, couches with tables, accompanied by large screen monitors that serve as announcement boards and are available to connect to for presentations etc), as well as private single seating to accommodate any type of learning.

Whilst students will be able to make full use of the ground and upper two floors, the the top fourth floor is reserved for staff access only. Each floor features a water fountain, kitchenette unit and WCs in addition to a shower on the ground level. To help with security, the university are providing student ID operated locker spaces scattered across all floors with the main bulk of them situated on the bottom floor.

The academic facilities include: computer labs (approx. 42 PC’s each), virtual reality control room and VR gaming recording studio, high performance (gaming) PC lab, more seminar rooms, additional THETA room, electronics and physics labs and a dedicated metallography lab.

Students and staff will be able to make use of dedicated meeting rooms (will be helpful for tutor group sessions), a range of six “small group” rooms and laptop borrowing among other services.

As previously mentioned, the second floor of BS will be open to students beginning in March, followed by a grand opening in September 2020 when the building should be fully operational ahead of the new academic year.

We spoke to Ray Dean, the Academic Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing who told us: ‘This new building will allow us to expand our innovative and inspiring teaching and research spaces for students and staff in the Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing. Connecting the new building with our existing engineering building will allow a seamless integration of the facilities, enhancing the student experience. We are excited about the opportunities that this addition to our Faculty estate will bring’.