Waterside Campus, University of Northampton - Moses Cameron Williams Architects

Photography Chris Snook

Opening in 2018 and offering a huge improvement to its student and staff climate for greater team and cross-institutional learning, this innovative educational environment has recently been honoured with: -

2020 Civic Trust Awards - Regional Finalist

2019 AUDE University Impact Initiative of the Year Award

2019 Education Estates Client of the Year Award

There were a number of clients involved in this project for Chris., the main being the interior designers for the project, however the brief crossed over with the MWC architects and a couple of companies who created pieces of furniture.

The brief was to capture the new Waterside Campus, showcasing how the architecture and design married together creating an innovative, inspiring, creative and refreshing learning space for students and staff members alike.

The space was in parts quite tricky for Chris to tackle, with it being so enormous and no way of controlling the activity within.

The first few days Chris visited, 6 in total, he had the pleasure to shoot it empty before returning when it was open to students. It was much easier prior to the students appearing as it was immaculate, clean and tidy and a photographers dream…

For some images, where Chris could, he used natural light only, where for others he utilised his profoto lighting set up to add some fill to help balance the exposure. However, his main goal was to promote the use of natural light as much as possible to exhibit the interior at its peak.

The design had numerous abundant features including double aspect windows, towering staircases and individual pods to boost learning and creativity. The scale of the project was huge which it needed to be to accommodate the recent uptake in university applicants and the existing student body.

It won the coveted “design through innovation award” at the RICS awards in 2019.