Inside InfoLab21
InfoLab21 won the national British Council for Offices Best Corporate Workplace prize and has been designated as 'Excellent' in an Environmental Assessment from the Building Research Establishment.
Designed by FaulknerBrown Architects and built by HBG, the copper-clad building with its distinctive bronze windows, includes state-of-the-art computer facilities, 6200 square metres of office space and a glass atrium with self-cleaning windows.
Knowledge Business Centre
An entire wing of InfoLab21 is dedicated to the Knowledge Business Centre (KBC), which houses the Business Development Department and ICT Focus, the ICT Training Department.
The KBC's Business Development team acts as an innovation hub, enabling the University to strengthen its links with business and enterprise through an umbrella of industry training and technology transfer activities, transferring expertise between InfoLab21's academics, regional businesses and community partnerships.
Business Incubation
The KBC also contains twenty business units and facilities for incubation and provides a supportive environment for new business start-ups and University spin-outs. The business units benefit from specialist support from the Centre's Business Development team.
ICT Focus
ICT Focus offers a range of advanced technical training courses in applications development and in systems and network administration, from Microsoft and Cisco certified courses, through to vocationally-orientated University accredited courses or bespoke courses for industry.
Shared Space
A transparent glass bridge links the L-shaped research wing with the Knowledge Business Centre, and contains a shared reception, meeting rooms and café, with a rooftop terrace looking over the valley to the Dales beyond.
Research Facilities
Internally, the research wing is configured in an innovative new layout, bringing academic teams from both the Department of Communication Systems and the Department of Computing together for the first time, around shared 'club' spaces with transparent offices. This configuration was developed following a number of visits and workshops to examine best practice examples of new academic spaces and research offices to create a pleasant, impressive and supportive place to work.
This pioneering new layout is helping to encourage a greater cross-fertilisation of ideas and create a more open and interactive pattern of work.
