IN Brief:
- Novus Property Solutions has started a £4.2m transformation at Loughborough University.
- The project will create Digi-Lab Central across two existing campus buildings.
- The scheme combines refurbishment, MEP, acoustic treatment, energy measures, and specialist digital-learning facilities.
Novus Property Solutions has started work on a £4.2m contract to transform two Loughborough University campus buildings into a specialist digital STEM facility.
The project will create Digi-Lab Central, a purpose-designed environment for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teaching. Completion is expected in June 2026, with the finished facility set to support advanced digital learning across a range of specialist technologies.
The new space will include a Proto Hologram, virtual reality laboratory, drone technology, marker-based motion capture, a GPU laboratory, and a 3D immersive wall and floor installation. Novus’ Public Services & Commercial division is delivering the scheme, which combines refurbishment, reconfiguration, building services, and specialist fit-out in a live university environment.
Across the two adjacent buildings, the works include a new canopy structure, internal strip-out, roof works, stairwell extension, MEP installation, specialist acoustic floor, wall, and ceiling finishes, and associated external and landscaping works. Energy efficiency measures are also included, with fabric improvements and air-quality management intended to support a more efficient and healthier campus building.
University estate work is increasingly being shaped by the need to adapt existing buildings for specialist use. New-build teaching blocks remain part of the sector, but refurbishment can offer a quicker and less land-intensive route where campuses need to upgrade capability within established estates. The trade-off is technical complexity, particularly where existing structures, services, circulation, and academic operations need to be worked around.
Digital teaching environments bring different construction requirements from standard classrooms or lecture theatres. Virtual reality, motion capture, GPU computing, hologram systems, drones, and immersive display technologies require careful coordination of power, data, ventilation, lighting, acoustic treatment, floor performance, access, safety systems, and future maintenance routes.
That creates a more integrated brief for contractors. Construction, AV integration, MEP design, IT infrastructure, facilities management, and academic users need to be aligned early enough to avoid late-stage redesign. A technically advanced teaching space can become difficult to operate if services capacity, heat management, access control, or acoustic performance are not properly coordinated.
The Loughborough project sits within a wider education-estate push towards higher-performing buildings that support capacity, digital capability, and lower operational energy demand. Recent school and university schemes, including the expansion of Rushcliffe Spencer Academy, show how public and education clients are linking building investment to capacity, specialist provision, and long-term estate resilience.
Live campus environments remain demanding construction settings. Access routes, noise control, safeguarding, term-time activity, student movement, campus logistics, and interfaces with existing services all need careful planning. Programme certainty depends on how intrusive works, services changeovers, equipment installation, testing, and commissioning are sequenced around university operations.
STEM investment is also changing the physical brief for education buildings. The drive to improve capability in digital engineering, immersive learning, AI, robotics, and advanced data use is no longer limited to buying equipment. It is changing room layouts, services design, environmental control, and the way buildings need to flex as technology evolves.
Digi-Lab Central is a compact example of that shift. The project uses existing campus buildings to create a more technical learning environment, pairing refurbishment with equipment-heavy fit-out. For construction teams, schemes of this type require more than fabric improvement. They demand a clear understanding of how teaching, technology, building performance, and future adaptability need to work together after handover.
