The Sir Frank Gibb is a refurbished 1960s building, with a wrap around three storey extension and a light-well. The building is comprised of combi-offices (small cellular offices, with adjacent informal meeting areas), cellular offices, a large open-plan research ‘hub’, meeting rooms, informal meeting areas and teaching rooms.

The building was designed to:

• Replace a range of existing poor quality accommodation, including portacabins

• Stimulate more interaction and collaboration between occupants

• Change the culture of the department

• Generate increased research activity

• Raise the profile of the Department and the University

• Provide greater levels of flexibility

Lecturers and professors are accommodated in combi-offices and researchers in a large open-plan workspace, in which PhD students ‘hot-desk’ and contract researchers are provided with dedicated desks. A clean-desk policy is in operation in the in the ‘hot-desking’ areas. Administrative staff have their own dedicated desks in shared cellular offices.