Striking glass designs aim to be memorable

Many universities make use of radical architecture to ensure their campuses stick in the minds of prospective students, a sector commentator has asserted.

Writing in the online pages of the Guardian, Iain Borden suggests that designs, which often incorporate glazed canopies and domes, perform another function.

He suggests that apart from ensuring that a particular seat of learning remains in the heads of potential applicants when it comes to filling in a Ucas form, a contemporarily-designed structure can offer a sense of security to would-be scholars.

"They offer a reassurance that they will have somewhere modern and decent to live, scrappy bedsits and scabby shared houses just dont cut it any more," Mr Borden adds.

He identifies a number of particularly striking structures that incorporate glass into their designs, such as the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science Blizard Building at the University of London and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of Central Lancashire.

Meanwhile, sector commentator Sophie Lam recently noted in the Independent that the glass-rich renovation of a hotel in Zurich paid tribute to the original 19th-century structure.