Reading time: 6 mins

Part 1: The Lecture Theatre

A university campus is not just a workplace for academic and professional services staff, but also the daily ‘workplace’ for thousands of students. How university buildings are designed has a major impact on how spaces are used, and this in turn can affect the wellbeing, sense of belonging and learning success of students. In this short series of two blog posts, we want to elaborate on the importance of design on student wellbeing, but also look at common spatial settings – the lecture theatre and communal spaces – and ask how those can be designed differently.

Reading time: 5 mins

For the second year running Milliken partnered with Loughborough University on a project to design carpet tile concepts using Milliken’s proprietary Millitron® patterning technology for theoretical commercial environments. The project, developed closely with the University, forms an important part of the students’ final degree. But in 2020 – the year of the global pandemic – the students and staff faced unique challenges.

Reading time: 5 mins

I have experienced the interior environment in Higher Education (HE) as a designer, senior lecturer, parent of students and latterly as a postgraduate student. This has provided me with a range of perspectives from marvelling at my son’s en-suite bathroom (and noticing the cost) to wincing as students cut card on new studio tables. 

Reading Time : 3 mins

100 days of lock-down, we find ourselves living under the microscope. Our lives have shrunk, and we have had to adapt to a new way of life, tucked away in the safety of our homes. Customer Experience Manager, Mental First Aider and Yoga Professional, Urva Soni who is based full time in our London showroom shares her personal experiences, as she returns to work, in Clerkenwell London.

Reading time: 5 mins

As governments around the world look to ease lockdowns, companies are searching for safe ways to get their employees back to work as soon as possible. Safety, as well as, mental and physical well-being is now firmly at the top of the corporate agenda.

Reading time: 5 mins

Until recently if you were to describe a green office, it would most likely be the sustainable aspects of the structure. This might incorporate the building’s energy saving features such as lighting and heating, how it is designed to reuse and recycle waste and to reduce water consumption. An increasing body of evidence is now focusing on the wider benefits a sustainable workplace can have on the health and well-being of its occupants. Ways in which the work environment can sustain people as well as place.

Reading time: 5 mins

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world. Over the course of the eight days, there are numerous design districts throughout London that hold hidden gems within curated design venues, all opening their doors to the public, presenting exhibitions, installations, talks and statement design products all designed to inspire. This year’s Design Festival immersed us with installations that were interactive, designed for the landscapes and environments they sit within and products that were as much about the environment as they were good design.

Reading Time : 4 mins

It could be said that we explore colour throughout our daily lives. Living with and through colour affects all that we are as individuals. 

Our personalities, our mood, our thoughts, what we eat, how we feel, our choices and sometimes our desires. Colour creates memories, ideas, perceptions, it plays with light, pattern, shape and form.

Reading Time : 5 mins

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions” Dalai Lama XIV.

Happiness is so important to us humans that we make it the foundation tenet of government, spirituality (Dalai Lama, 1998), philosophy (Jeremy Bentham, 1789) and a burning desire for most of us to find a life well lived in perfect harmony, surrounded by the mythical ‘happiness bird’ chirping somewhere in a nearby rainbow shrouded tree.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Milliken is a company passionate about design. We love what we do and are inspired by the power and beauty that meaningful design can deliver. Our floor coverings bring together the spirit of innovation and engineering excellence with the creativity and inspiration of our local design teams.