The Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory, or PEARL, will be part of University College London’s Centre for Transport Studies (CTS). It will house research into how people interact with the built environment. It will be able to simulate large-scale environments such as train stations or town centres and test people’s reactions to them.
It will be one of the core laboratories in the government-funded UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure & Cities (UKCRIC).
The new building, set to open in 2021, was granted planning permission by Barking & Dagenham Council last month. It will be built by VolkerFitzpatrick as UCL’s first net zero carbon building.
Nick Tyler, director of the UCL CTS, said: “PEARL’s vision is to create a better world through designing infrastructure that works for everyone, but also by facilitating research and education across a wide range of areas, including the arts, humanities and medical sciences, as well as planning, design and engineering.”
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