Overview
The Stag Hill Campus is the main campus of the University of Surrey in the UK, and sits on its namesake geographic feature, Stag Hill, along with Guildford Cathedral – which is directly accessible from the campus by two hidden pathways. The campus is known for its multiple statues and complex tiered design. The campus is approximately a 10-minute walk from the town centre.
Buildings
The campus is home to many "landmark" buildings, some of which were the result of architectural competitions.
Academic
The academic buildings of the campus are all named for scholars, most of whom are associated with the university or the town of Guildford, like Lewis Carroll and Alan Turing. In the 1960s they were built as flexible "modules" or "shells" in order to be multi-purpose. The designers' visions were successful, as the interior of these buildings have been remodeled for different university needs. The design has also been attributed to utilitarian needs because of a lack of funding.
Residential
The duplex Stag Hill rooms on the campus, designed by Maguire and Murray, were award-winning. The Millennium House building was designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and partners, who also designed the Duke of Kent building, and is also known as "The Train" because of its shape and because the railway line runs behind it. Its design is in harmony with that of the Duke of Kent building, which it faces.
Other
Other campus buildings include Senate House, which features a distinct clockface that was given to the university by Charterhouse School, There is an on-campus nightclub called Rubix, which is popular among students (according to journalists from university magazine The Stag when interviewed by other publications). The nightclub has three bars and a layout that keeps clubgoers spread out, and has regular club nights on Wednesday and Friday, having hosted music acts from Stormzy to David Bowie to Led Zeppelin. The Students' Union on the campus is in Union House, a Brutalist landmark designed by Maguire and Murray in 1972. However, in 2017 it was described as "life expired".
In 2016, the architecture firm HLM was hired to refurbish the Union House, but in 2017 a closed competition was opened by the university for proposals from selected firms (including HLM) to design a new £10–12 million building for the union to be housed in. At the time, Union House contained multiple important student life facilities, like bars and lounges, as well as the students' union. It is home to the nightclub Rubix. The HLM refurbishment would have expanded and redesigned three floors of the existing building. The new proposal is planned for completion in 2020, with extensive spaces including the campus' largest lecture theatre, a multi-purpose performance venue, radio and TV stations for campus societies Stag Radio and StagTV, and a cinema. A university research building is the 5G Innovation building, the centre for all global development of 5th generation mobile networks.
Another is the Surrey Space Centre, partnered with NASA. Also located on the campus are the studios for BBC Surrey and the regional office of the national academic examining body, AQA. Former buildings on the campus include "Channies" and "Amigos". "Amigos" is a former name of the campus grocery shop, and "Channies" is the nickname of now-closed Chancellor's Bar.
Statues and art
The campus has many statues and murals. On the open piazza there are many artistic features, including an oversized statue of Alan Turing, an embedded fountain, and Knife Birds, an African-inspired piece. This piazza was unveiled in 2004. There is a high stainless steel sculpture of a stag on top of a stand at the main entrance to the campus. Designed by sculptor Allan Sly and named The Surrey Stag, it is illuminated at night so that it is always visible. Because of its size, the antlers had to be removed for transport to the site. The metalworkers also pre-tested its strength to ensure it could support students climbing and posing on it. It is a tradition at the university to take a photo at the Stag upon graduation or dissertation submission in final year. At the campus amphitheatre is a sculpture called Thinking of My Future, unveiled in 2010.
This sculpture depicts a person looking worried, with one hand scratching their head and the other tightly grasping their leg. There are two separate but connecting walkways from the amphitheatre to the library piazza that pass a mural on the side of the Lecture Theatre building, this was built in 1980 on three aluminium panels by Duncan Newton, and was commissioned by the university's Arts Council. A mural of a tree made of ceramics outside the Students' Union was created by students at the Roehampton Institute of Art, which was connected with the university at the time. There are covered walkways also connecting several academic buildings. These walkways feature artwork that is coloured circles, which are illuminated by lights at night.
Initially this was an art project in 1996, both for the dots on the walkways and for artistic impressions to be made of the result, and they were meant to be taken down shortly afterwards, but they still remain.
Natural spaces
The campus has a collection of notable and rare trees, with maps and pamphlets of these available around Guildford. These are spread and regularly planted across the campus. Also on the campus is a lake with a grass area, where social events are held, like the Summer of Cinema in 2018, where films were played throughout the summer for free. The campus supports its natural spaces with eco-friendly initiatives, and in 2018 secured £100,000 in order to fund a bike-sharing scheme for students.
See also
List of public art in Surrey