Graduation at The University of Royal Holloway

We were honoured to design and build a one-of-a-kind venue for Royal Holloway’s summer graduation ceremonies. We designed this structure with the students in mind, allowing them to celebrate their biggest academic achievement in style with a day to remember. Working closely with the graduation team, we created a space which made the complex, logistical planning of a graduation ceremony smooth and efficient.

The Challenge

When the university reached out to us, their brief was sensitive. The current intake of students had outgrown the historic Chapel, where the graduation has been celebrated for the last 100 years. Saying goodbye to the historic walls of the building to celebrate the 2023 graduation wasn’t going to be easy for the students. However, the events team were faced with a difficult task as no other existing areas had the capacity for this growing event.

It was crucial that a temporary venue could encapsulate the historically important backdrop of the Founders Building, renowned as one of the world’s most spectacular universities, opened by Queen Victoria in 1886! The structure needed to make a special statement to Grandaunts on their big day, with this being a first for them and a big change from the past in all respects.

Building the event

The first challenge of the build was carefully coordinating heavy plant and materials around the busy goings on of the university, as the university remained open to summer students.

The second biggest challenge was building on a football pitch with very limited access to utility services to provide all functions needed for a temporary venue to run, including power, water and waste. Losberger De Boer provided a complete turnkey solution for the Graduation event team, delivering a safe and complete venue so attendees could simply dress for the celebration.

We built our Acropolis structure to create a powerful entrance to the graduation hall, chosen by the client with this being a striking transparent design, fitting in perfectly with the Founder’s buildings spires.

In total, the venue was made up of three parts – Using the Acropolis as an entrance/reception space, The Alu hall for the ceremony to host 850 students, teachers, family and loved ones, and a walkway so the students could exit the structure safely and efficiently.

It was really important that the structure design and plan was future-proof, sustainable and economical, with an ever-growing intake of students and a growing event. This is something that we had to consider throughout all stages of this project. We’re very grateful to the University for the opportunity and wish all students the best of luck in the future!

Client Testimonial

“What secured the deal was that LDB demonstrated that they could provide us with a turnkey solution - Oliva from LDB demonstrated that she understood the vision of what we were trying to achieve. What I most liked about working with LDB was the people and the planning that went into putting together the scheduling. Every challenge that we presented LDB solved for us.” - Matthew Searle, Head of Student Engagement. 

“Having Losberger De Boer build us this fabulous structure meant that we could design a graduation exactly fit for purpose and Losberger De Boer completed our vision beautifully - it looks fabulous and it has worked superbly. The best thing about Losberger is that they are super organised, they showed us their vision and we were blown away.” - Sarah Tridgell, Events and Student Engagement Officer.