WSU Atrium - Community Space Design Project

The Challenge

The Atrium is most people’s entry point to the Students’ Union – but like many other visitors, our first impressions weren’t positive. The area felt dark, uninspiring and lacking identity. Staff and students weren’t really using it, except as a cut-through to other outlets in the building.

What we did

The SU’s brief to us was to transform the Atrium into a practical, useable daytime space for students and staff to work, relax and socialise. It needed to be flexible to accommodate different events and activities across the university calendar. We were working to tight timescales and a modest budget, so we knew that we’d need to be highly creative and resourceful.

Flexibility: Part of the strength of our redesign for The Atrium lies in its flexibility. Using modular, mobile furniture and a considered layout, the area can shift from a quiet study space in the morning to a place to host pop-up stalls or special events in the afternoon. There’s always something different happening – and that attracts people in.

Warm and welcoming: We used acoustic treatments to manage sound levels and introduced a mix of lighting to make the area feel more intimate and inviting. These were key factors in making a large, angular space feel warmer and more welcoming.

Vibrant and contemporary: Graphics translating the Student Unions brand help add personality and a sense of ownership whilst our choice of sustainable materials has created a contemporary look that will stand up to repeated use over time.

Free-flowing: Getting the layout right was crucial to giving The Atrium a sense of purpose. We’ve created zones for people to use the space but also thought carefully about signage and wayfinding so that people can easily navigate to other parts of the SU building.

Insight & Strategy

Branding & Graphics

Concept, Design & Development

Technical Design & Drawings

Design Management

Fit-out

Results

We’ve used our design expertise to turn the Atrium into a vibrant and inviting space that feels firmly focused on students.

Students are spending more time here – it’s now somewhere to catch up with friends and attend events as well as being a popular meeting point for groups going on to other parts of the building.

Result

“Warwick Students’ Union worked with Retail Experience Design on refurbishing our main daytime student social space – the SU Atrium. RED provided great insight right from the start of the project, and gave us some great concepts to begin the design process. We had tight deadlines, but RED worked hard to ensure our requirements and feedback were incorporated into the scheme as we went through the development stages. We felt supported and involved throughout the process, and RED managed the delivery of an amazing new space exactly in line with the final design. Feedback from students has been incredible, and we couldn’t be happier with how the project turned out. We would wholeheartedly recommend RED, and would definitely work with them again on similar projects in the future.”

George Dowding

Communications and Marketing Director

Let’s transform your space together

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Working with the Community Sector

With imagination and insight into how people interact, we’ve helped create places to encourage inclusiveness, enable collaboration and cultivate community.

We can help:

Create a visually exciting space, somewhere that engages people and inspires them to spend time there.
Translate your brand into the physical environment – use your space to tell your story and connect with your audience.
Reimagining and repurposing wasted spaces.

Community Sector