Active Campus, University of East London

Active Campus

University of East London

Colour helped UEL with the concept and development of an active campus with the intention of promoting healthy lifestyles for student and staff wellbeing. The Active Campus originated as a strategic priority for their capital investment programme designed to improve the number, quality and consistency of spaces and places for better experiences across both learning and local communities as they live, study and work.

Understanding the student community and their behaviour was key to this process. Developing the aspiration to built form naturally required a thorough understanding of those at the university and how they would use the external landscape. Faced with many students working and part-time the challenges of engagement in the past had been great with very low response rates to online surveys. A broader strategy was therefore required:

Hybrid surveys, online and in person
Offer rewards for participation
Organise outdoor events – bringing together sports, the arts and all departments
Use these events to help people get to know their campus
Test which events and parts of the campus worked and what didn’t
Collaboration with behavioural psychologists and disability groups to fine tune nudges

The result was the first phase of physical infrastructure to promote wellness, knowledge and activity on a 1 mile loop around the Docklands campus.

The 2 annual ‘After Dark’ festivals were a huge success, bringing together students and staff from many departments of the university and introducing the wider campus to many in the student community who had not previously explored the full asset with its panoramic views. Opportunities were explored for permanent interventions.