The Royal Veterinary College

Hawkshead Campus Redevelopment in the RVC

The Royal Veterinary College was established in 1791 and is the largest and longest-established veterinary school in the English-speaking world. In 1949 it became a Member Institution of the University of London.

The RVC offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing, biological sciences, and CPD programmes. It has been ranked the top veterinary school in the world in the QS World Rankings by Subject for three years in a row.

Hawkshead Campus Redevelopment

The Hawkshead Campus in Hertfordshire houses facilities to deliver both the theoretical and practical elements of our courses. It is where veterinary medicine students are based for their final three years.

The Hawkshead Campus completed the largest and most ambitious single capital development the RVC has ever undertaken in 2023. It provides new teaching laboratories, a library, and a main lecture theatre with a capacity for 452 students, alongside informal social learning spaces.

Collaborating with the architects

The original specification envisaged a very basic lecture theatre seat with no ergonomic design. The Ferco team worked closely with the architects, Norr Architecture, to find a solution that met all the client's needs. Renderings of the seats and tables were made, to help visualise the space.

Main lecture theatre

The main auditorium, divided into two spaces by a movable partition, separates a larger lecture theatre with a capacity for 352 students, and a smaller one, with an additional capacity of 100 students. The two spaces are complementary and can function separately or together, depending on the needs of the occasion.

Ferco installed a total of 452 FT10 seats with wooden tables between the two spaces.

FT10 seat

The FT10 seat, with its ergonomic design and lumbar support, was ultimately the best option to provide the lecture theatre with a comfortable, design-led, and durable seat.

The seats were installed in benches of 2 or 3 seats, to form the trapezoidal shape of the hall. The centre-to-centre measurements combine seats of 460 and 485 mm for a better adaptation to the space and circulation areas. In the front area, removable seating units were provided for DDA spaces.

Wooden desks

Ferco also supplied the wooden desks. These incorporate electrical connections (USB, Type C & Type A) to enable students to use laptops and mobiles during lessons. In the front area, movable tables were also provided for DDA spaces.

Stunning results

The FT10 seats were upholstered in three different colours from Camira's Main Line Plus, a heavy-duty fabric aiming for maximum durability. A pleasing combination was consistent with the corporate colours of the Royal Veterinary College.