The Student ServiceHub transforms how students experience and engage with their university’s crucial resources. The bespoke design solution creatively brings student services to life in a boldy branded environment that features backlit touchdown bars, flexible lounge spaces, custom-designed tech-enabled furnishings, gleaming white surfaces, sparkling lighting, and a cool supergraphics aesthetic. The ServiceHub is reminiscent of a technology store or a design-savvy coffee shop, offering an interactive experience that aligns with the social habits of today’s digital native students. The space is organized into clear, distinguishable zones for “triage” reception, administration and lounge seating, fronting an informal area for eating and gathering that encourages collegiality. What was once an uninviting interior is now light-filled and animated, a destination place serving multiple uses where staff and students can meet, study, or dine. Strategic design moves embrace the pre-existing interior conditions, bridging the gap between old and new elements. Curved and angular walls, and a central, double-storey volume, break away from the building’s rectilinear gridlines, broadening the feeling of the space. Ring-shaped LED pendant lighting and round furniture balance out the space’s linearity. The supergraphic wall provides dramatic contrast to the original béton brut walls, which were left exposed, to add visual interest and texture.
Ryerson University Student ServiceHub, Toronto, Canada
Gow Hastings Architects

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Designer
Gow Hastings Architects
Client
Ryerson University
Floor area
1208.00 ㎡
Completion
2016