Swansea's new container village
Swansea may have a new 'port city' built out of shipping containers in an effort to provide affordable start ups for businesses.
£300 million of investment will see the University of Wales Trinity Saint David development on the SA1 waterfront take off.
It is hoped that it will bring business and the students from the university together to share ideas and create links to the university's academic programme.
Professor Andrew Harrison, Director of Spaces That Work and Professor of Practice at the University, has been working on the project, and will be speaking at our Forum on 6th March.
20,000 square meters would be used to create creative industries and sports hubs while retail and places to eat could attract shoppers and visitors.
Swansea Council wants to use the development to produce a digital district on Kingsway and a digital square at the St David's development. It is part of the Swansea Bay City Region's 'Internet Coast' bid to the UK Government for a City Deal which is worth an estimated £500 million to the regional economy over the next 20 years.
Andrew established Spaces That Work Ltd, an independent consultancy specialising in learning environments, in early 2011. Prior to this he was Director of Learning and Research at DEGW, an international design practice based in London. While at DEGW Andrew led a number of major international research projects including the European Commission supported research project Sustainable Accommodation for the New Economy, published in 2003 as 'The Distributed Workplace', and Project Faraday in 2007 which developed new space and experience models for the teaching of secondary school science in Britain.
He has also led many learning-related research and consulting projects, exploring the impacts of technology and pedagogy change on school and higher education institution design including a major 30-month study investigating the impact of personalised learning on school design which was published in June 2011. He has worked with a wide range of Universities in the UK and internationally on building and campus design projects including: Imperial College, Oxford University, University of Glasgow, Aalto University in Helsinki and the Aga Khan University in East Africa, Pakistan and London. Since 2015 he has been part of the team delivering the new Swansea Waterfront campus project for the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and has also worked on several University wide projects looking at future learning and work spaces for the University,
His book on future learning environments ‘ Design for the Changing educational landscape: space, place and the future of learning’ was published by Routledge in 2014.
EDUCATION
B.Sc.(Hons) Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Professor of Practice, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (2015 - )