On the outskirts of a seemingly unremarkable industrial estate in Dagenham, 15 miles east of central London, stands a Corten steel-clad structure that houses the world — and the ambitions of thousands of students.

Welcome to Pearl: the Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory at University College London, in which researchers hope to reveal the motivations behind the intricacies of human behaviour.

Inside, myriad captivating experiments unfold. The 4,000 sq m, award-winning, net-zero-carbon space can be endlessly reconfigured to simulate actual environments in life size but under controlled conditions, allowing scientists and academics to examine people’s interactions with others and with their surroundings.

It should come as no surprise that UCL is the setting for this futuristic development; it is a powerhouse of British higher education, promising “disruptive