Behind the Build: Education at Thirdway

Meet Jean Wang, our Head of Education, as she introduces Thirdway’s Education sector and helps shape the next chapter of our evolution.

I'm delighted to begin a new chapter for Thirdway — one dedicated to education, and to the people who live, learn and work within it.

Over the past fifteen years, I've had the privilege of delivering £175m+ of mixed-use development across some of higher education's most complex heritage and conservation settings. My work has included a £105m redevelopment for UAL London College of Communication in the heart of Elephant and Castle, and a £40m student hub for the University of Westminster.  It has also delivered a Grade II-listed masterplan for Wolfson College, Oxford, and UCL’s CAVE, a large-scale air quality and ventilation laboratory.

Each project has taught me the same lesson: buildings don't succeed because of steel, glass or clever massing. They succeed because of the people who shape them, and the people who will use them long after the scaffolding comes down. That belief sits at the heart of everything I am bringing to Thirdway. Our purpose is simple and deliberate: to shape spaces around people, in order to facilitate creation and inspire confidence in the people and organisations we serve. As I begin this new chapter, of  Higher Education at Thirdway, that principle is my starting point.

Higher education is one of the most rewarding — and demanding — sectors to design for. A university is never one client; it's a whole ecosystem of governance boards, councils, residents, students, academics and neighbours, all with a stake in the outcome. At UAL, that meant coordinating consultation with over 5,500 stakeholders to co-create a genuinely shared public realm. At the University of Westminster, it meant sitting at the table with university leadership, the local council and residents to align eighteen months of planning around one vision. Partnering, for me, isn't a soft skill alongside the technical work — it is the technical work. It's how you reach a 100% planning success rate, and how you get buildings that communities actually want.

That partnership-first approach is already shaping our current work. Above the streets of Stratford, is The Campus in the Sky — the University of Hull's London campus. The new campus has taken shape through close collaboration with the University of Hull and Cambridge Education Group. Rather than fitting students around a building, we designed the building around the student journey, spread vertically across two floors. A dedicated Reception and Student Support Desk welcomes every visitor, leading into Student, Skills and Careers zones for focused growth, and a Social Learning area where the real connections happen between classes. Classrooms, an IT lab, meeting rooms and tiered presentation seating support contemporary teaching, while an Academic Lounge offers a quieter pace for staff and students alike.

Wellbeing was built into the brief from day one, not bolted on afterwards. Dedicated ablution and multi-faith facilities, a parenting room and a first aid room, all ensure the space genuinely serves a diverse community. Sustainability ran through every decision: energy-efficient plant and equipment to reduce operational demand, sustainable materials and low-impact construction methods, and strict adherence to the waste hierarchy — prevent, reduce, reuse, re cycle — avoiding over-specification at every stage. This is a project that shows what's possible when a university, an education partner and a design team share one vision, from concept through to completion — full design, furniture, branding, wayfinding, MEP and delivery, all under one roof.

As we grow Thirdway's presence in higher education, I want to bring that same spirit of partnership to every campus, faculty and student body we work with. Listening first, designing collaboratively, and building places that serve people for decades, not just for opening day.

I'm looking forward to the conversations ahead, and to the institutions and communities we'll be working with. If you're thinking about your campus's next chapter, I'd love to talk.