Innovation, Creativity, Passion
Our Story
The Foundry at UWE Bristol was part-sponsored by the Institute of Coding and launched in 2019, replacing a former Student Union Bar on Frenchay Campus. The space was re-designed to emit a retro-futuristic industrial vibe but with a rustic, warm atmosphere. Its layout was designed to facilitate collaboration and offer versatility for different professional engagement requirements. Much of the furniture and architecture makes use of reclaimed materials. Embracing the traces of the materials’ previous life gives the space a great sense of charm and character.
The Foundry design was the brainchild of Andy King, Associate Professor of Technology & Innovation, with the aim of creating an innovative technology affinity space that would give students real world development experience in a welcoming shared learning environment. The space is supported by UWE Bristol’s Library, Careers & Inclusivity team as well as the School of Computing and Creative Technologies.
Spacious, Flexible, Collaborative
The space
The Foundry is an open plan space where students work collaboratively on commercial projects in games and creative technologies. It is also a popular place for industry events or skills development sessions.
It contains a wealth of large monitors for delivery of impactful presentations or showcasing projects, private spaces for quieter work as well as meeting areas with tables for 8 – 10 people. The space also contains a communal kitchen to aid social conversations and community building. The space can seat 50+ students, making it adaptable for a wide range of purposes.
Agile, Fun, Future Thinking
Meet the Team
Simon Emberton
Foundry Co-Director
In addition to this role Simon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing and Creative Technologies and the Programme Leader for the BSc Digital Media course at UWE. His educational background includes BA Fine Art: Painting at the Glasgow School of Art, MA Communication Art & Design at the Royal College of Art and PhD Media & Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London.
Bruce McLaren
Foundry Co-Director
There is nothing more Bruce likes than creating experiences for the user through technology, be that using ambisonics, binaural sound reproduction or ultra-low latency audio over networks. Having worked at the forefront of the IP revolution in outside broadcast Bruce brings a wealth of industry experience to The Foundry alongside his role as Lecturer in Audio Engineering.
Charlie Blaise
Foundry Client Manager
Nothing resonates more with Charlie than a game that looks as good as it feels to play. Game feel and aesthetic are the most important thing to him, so he will always try to experiment with new ideas to fit those ideals.
Quinn McNeil
Foundry Client Manager
Quinn loves tinkering with interesting mechanics and game systems. Getting things to work just right and feel good for the player is their main goal when making a game and there’s always a few experiments on the back burner exploring various things.
Wojciech Chmielewski
Foundry Client Manager
With a big soft spot for roguelikes of all kinds, Wojtek enjoys games that are fast paced, have intricate game mechanics or a combination of both and he wants to bring the same energy into all of the projects he works on.
Grace Tuddenham
Foundry Admin
Grace completed her degree at UWE and worked as Executive Assistant at Brighton University for the School of Humanities and Social Science before moving back to UWE as an Executive Assistant for Computing and Creative Technologies.
Let’s Connect!
We’re happy to discuss your needs
Tell us about your project, event or partnership idea and how the Foundry could help. We will be in touch soon.
