The £54.3M state-of-the-art Interdisciplinary Research Building (IBRB) opened its doors end of March on the University of Warwick’s Gibbet Hill campus, with the idea of bringing together up to 300 biomedical researchers from the School of Life Sciences and Warwick Medical School to fight human diseases.
IBRB wanted to provide a world-class environment in which to train and enrich the learning experience of future generations of biomedical researchers. Plans included a 400 seat lecture theatre and many new social and collaboration spaces.
TeamMate engaged in conversations with the architect and the university from the on-set to providing technical furniture solutions for its lecture theatre and collaboration/meeting pods and spaces. Each table was designed to ergonomically fit within the room boundaries and to ensure each person had sufficient space for work.
TeamMate supplied an Educator 3 Twin VariHite lectern for the main 400 seat lecture theatre as part of the University of Warwick standard lectern design. The new Educator design has a pull-out rack and tilting worktop to aid integration and ongoing maintenance. As part of the brief, IBRB also had several large enclosed meeting pods and smaller huddle space requirements. It was therefore proposed that TeamMate’s new Kobi Table would be used for the meeting pods and WorksZone Collaboration Tables for the huddle spaces.
The Kobi Meeting tables were custom made to fit the size of each meeting pod, each table had power, twin fast USB charging and a flying HDMI lead in each central connectivity module (CCM). At the end of the table, 43″ or 55″ display together with Logitech soundbar, were mounted depending on whether the tables were seating 8 or 12 people. Kobi blends traditional furniture and technical furniture seamlessly, therefore AV equipment can be mounted easily and accessed as quickly as possible.
For the smaller collaborative huddle rooms, WorksZone Tables were designed with Reverse Trapeze worktops with a 55″ screen and Logitech conference camera/ soundbar. The CCM had TeamMate Power Pucks and a weighted Cable Retractor. In keeping with the architect’s request, the metalwork on both the Kobi and WorksZone Tables were required to be in black powder-coat and the worktops in Polar White Formica finish.
Upon completion of the project early in 2021, TeamMate and integrator partner GVAV were very pleased with how the project turned out, despite dealing with the challenges of installing during the 3rd lockdown of the pandemic in the UK.
TeamMate worked with Robert Rose, Audio Visual Services Specialist at the university and Matt Price from GVAV, to ensure that each Kobi and WorksZone Table was designed to incorporate the right balance of audiovisual technology, whilst ensuring access for any servicing or maintenance.
Robert Rose commented ‘Overall feedback of the Kobi and WorksZone Tables has been very positive, with students and academics booking out spaces regularly. Even other departments now want similar meeting spaces in other areas of the University. It has been a pleasure working with TeamMate and made everything easy from the initial design through to the installation.’
Robert Rose commented ‘Overall feedback of the Kobi and WorksZone Tables has been very positive, with students and academics booking out spaces regularly. Even other departments now want similar meeting spaces in other areas of the University. It has been a pleasure working with TeamMate and made everything easy from the initial design through to the installation.’
Robert Rose, Audio Visual Services Specialist
University of Warwick
